University of Western Australia in Focus

University Name: University of Western Australia (UWA)

Location: Perth, WA

Founded: Faculty of Medicine established in 1956

Degree: MD

Entry Pathway: UCAT Exam (Assured-entry) and GAMSAT® Exam

Enrollment Size: 105 graduate entry positions and 40 ‘assured pathway’ for high achieving high school leavers

Website: http://www.meddent.uwa.edu.au/courses

 

The Doctor of Medicine at University of Western Australia is a 4-year program taught at the Crawley Campus of UWA. Although the University itself first opened over 100 years ago in 1911, the medicine program was not established until 1956 and has only recently made the switch from MBBS to MD in 2014.

The course is divided into 3 stages. The first 6 months is focused on building your foundational skills and knowledge that will form the basis of your next 3 and half years. The next phase explores the body systematically, focusing on the clinical and basic sciences behind all the body systems. In these first two phases, the teaching is similar with equal face-to-face time and small group tutorial sessions that aim to integrate the science and clinical material in the form of ‘Case enhanced learning’.  Phase 3 begins your clinical years and aims to prepare you for practice after completing your degree. UWA also attempts to integrate early clinical practice into the foundation and system based phases with clinical placement beginning in the first two weeks of the course.

The University has a strong focus on rural education and health and so from the middle of year two, it offers electives in Aboriginal health and rural medicine. Although it is only a requirement for 25% of the cohort to spend a full year of clinical allocation in a rural area, students are encouraged to take Aboriginal and rural electives prior to the end of second year which focus on rural research and specialization and Aboriginal Health.

There are two pathways for entry into Medicine at UWA. The first pertains to those who have completes a UWA bachelor degree or equivalent and wish to enter through the graduate entry pathway. This requires the student to sit the GAMSAT® Exam (Minimum score for entry in 2016 is 52 with a minimum score of 50 in each section), maintain a GPA above 5.5 and complete an interview in Perth that will equally contribute to their entry score. The second option is for high achieving Domestic School leavers. To be eligible, the applicant must have a minimum ATAR of 99 or equivalent and a suitable UMAT® Exam score. Although UWA doesn’t set a benchmark (Besides the requirement of achieving above the 20th percentile in the first section), your score is formed from the combined sum of the RAW score of the three sections. Keep in mind that if you are applying outside of Western Australia, you have to lodge an application through TISC, which is the Western Australia Tertiary Institutions Service Centre (equivalent to UAC for NSW and VTAC for Victoria).

The interview process is slightly different to most other universities. For high school leavers, you have to prepare for an ‘explaining skills exercise’ or ‘graduate presentation exercise’ for Graduate entry. The interview will be conducted in front of a panel of 2 people, a community and university representative (Generally one will be female and the other male).  Over 35-45 minutes you will be asked questions to give you the opportunity to display personal qualities desirable in a medical practitioner. For more information: http://www.meddent.uwa.edu.au/courses/postgraduate/apply-professional/interviews2