UQ medical education at Ipswich receives a boost with new facilities

15 April 2014

The UQ School of Medicine has officially opened its new medical education facilities strategically located adjacent the Ipswich Hospital.

UQ Medical School
University of Queensland, Ipswich Campus

In 2011, UQ was awarded funding from Health Workforce Australia to support the clinical training of medical students at the Ipswich Clinical School, which enabled the school to purchase and redevelop a commercial property.
Head of the Ipswich Clinical School Associate Professor Stephen Brierley said the new facility has become a hub for both staff and medical students, providing expanded space for teaching and learning.
“The new facility is also a testament to the strategic direction of medical education at Ipswich,” Associate Professor Brierley said.
“Over the last decade medical education at Ipswich has undergone a major transformation, and Ipswich now hosts more than 270 medical students across all four years of the course,” he said.
The Ipswich Hospital is the centre of the Ipswich Clinical School, which is responsible for teaching third- and fourth-year medical students in the region.
Among the Clinical Schools at UQ, Ipswich is unique in providing clinical experience across the full spectrum of medical specialties including Mental Health, Paediatrics and Obstetrics.
UQ has forged a strong relationship with the jospital and is fully engaged with St Andrews Hospital and Community Health Services.
The location of the school across the road from the Ipswich Hospital provides convenience of access to all these facilities and allows students their own environment for self-directed learning and the sharing of ideas.
Tying in closely is the University of Queensland’s campus at Ipswich, where preclinical medical students have been taught since 2009.
The first class comprised 40 students, and this number has grown steadily to the current 112 students in Year 1 and 80 in Year 2.
Associate Professor Brierley said the proximity of the campus to the hospital means that operationally the two phases are closer than they are anywhere else in UQ Medical School, and this facilitates vertical integration.
“The medical students meet many of their pre-clinical lecturers and tutors as consultants in years three and four,” he said. “The student cohorts are likewise closely linked, with clinical students providing informal coaching and tutoring to their preclinical colleagues.
“Ipswich is a unique community, which has fully embraced the nurturing of UQ medical students.
“A measure of the success of the program is the proportion of students who choose to undertake their entire medical teaching in Ipswich and then work their early medical careers at the hospital, ” he said.

About Ipswich Campus

The Ipswich Campus of the University of Queensland was established in 1999 on the historic site of the Challinor Centre. UQ Ipswich offers students a uniquely personalised learning environment that is based on UQ’s tradition of teaching excellence and graduate outcomes. With sweeping views of Ipswich and environs, the extensive and picturesque campus celebrated its 10th year of operation in 2009, having opened in 1999. The Ipswich campus delivers a quality medicine program, a new paramedic science degree, a comprehensive overview of health program, and is the only UQ campus that teaches undergraduate nursing and midwifery. The university’s Ipswich Campus provides a high-quality teaching and learning environment in a supportive, friendly campus community.

About the UQ Medical School Program

Program:  Doctor of Medicine (MD) commencing 2015
Location: Brisbane or Ipswich, Queensland
Semester intake: January
Duration: 4 years
Application deadline: UQ Medical School applications are assessed on a rolling admissions (first come, first served) basis. OzTREKK recommends that applicants apply early to increase their chances of timely assessment.

Apply to UQ Medical School!

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Contact OzTREKK’s Australian Medical Schools Admissions Officer Broghan Dean at any time for more information about the MD program at UQ Medical School or if you have questions about medical schools in Australia. Email Broghan at broghan@oztrekk.com or call toll free in Canada at 1 866-698-7355.

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