Monash University

Bachelor of Medical Science / Doctor of Medicine

Graduate

Details

University Location Melbourne, Victoria
City Population 5 Million
Student Population 86,000
Int'l Student Population 30,000
Main Campus Clayton
Program Campus Gippsland Campus, Churchill (approx 160 km southeast of Melbourne)
Program Duration 4 years
Estimated Annual Tuition $87,000 AUD (2023 fees; subject to increase)
Semester Intake February
Next Available Intake 2024
Application Deadline Varying rounds*
International Places 15 (total places 80)

Overview

Monash University has achieved national and international reputation for research and teaching excellence and is ranked in the top 1% of world universities.

The Monash School of Medicine is recognized for providing a comprehensive and interdisciplinary approach to medical training. The Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences is Monash’s largest research faculty and has established a reputation for the quality and impact of its research in health care and the biosciences. Beyond basic science, Monash has a very clear focus on translational research: taking frontier scientific discoveries and converting these into measurable human health benefits.

The Bachelor of Medical Science / Doctor of Medicine at Monash University has been designed in close consultation with doctors, health care professionals and leaders in the health and research sectors to give you the scientific background and clinical expertise to ensure you are prepared for your future as a doctor.

Read what current students have to say about studying at Monash during COVID!

Program

The Bachelor of Medical Science / Doctor of Medicine is a 4-year graduate-entry degree designed for students who have completed their undergraduate studies and are prepared to enter professional training to become a doctor. Course content emphasizes clinical communication skills and early clinical contact visits to medical practices, community care facilities, and hospitals.

Year A
You will complete your first year of study, Year A (pre-clinical year), at the School of Rural Health, which is located at the Gippsland campus of Federation University Australia in Churchill, Victoria. The remainder of the Monash graduate-entry medicine clinical years can be undertaken in Metropolitan Melbourne or in regional Victoria clinical sites if students so wish. You will have regular visits to the Clayton campus (approx. 20 km from downtown Melbourne) as part of your studies. Interdisciplinary units introduce the basic medical and behavioural sciences of anatomy, biochemistry, genetics, immunology, microbiology, pathology, pharmacology, physiology, and psychology, together with sociology of health, clinical skills, ethics, and medical law. After completion of the first year, you’ll progress into Year 3B.

Years 3B, 4C, 5D
Years 3 – 5 of the course are conducted in clinical settings, generally in hospitals and practices in metropolitan Melbourne, rural southeastern Victoria or rural northwest Victoria. You’ll spend around 40 hours per week working at a clinical site. This will provide you with time for self-directed study and the opportunity to be in control of your own learning to develop skills in problem-solving and the critical appraisal of information.

In Year 3B, you’ll be placed within Monash teaching hospitals. The emphasis moves towards multi-system disease representations that will form the core of the learning in integrated medicine and surgery.

In Year 4C clinical teaching builds upon and reinforces this strong foundation through the core clinical rotations of women’s and children’s health, general practice, and medicine of the mind (psychiatry).

The fourth and final year, Year 5D, features several clinical placements (or rotations). These rotations take place in both community and hospital settings. One of the rotations is an elective placement, where you’ll complete your degree by gaining wider experience in chosen disciplines and specific areas of interest.

Course Themes

This combined medical degree offers an integrated curriculum, taught in an interdisciplinary fashion around four broad themes and in a wide range of learning environments, both on-campus and in clinical settings.

Theme I: Personal and Professional Development
The course develops through theme studies in personal and professional development; population, society, health, and illness; scientific basis of clinical practice; and clinical skills, all of which come together in professional practice demonstrated in the clinical placement units.

Theme II: Population, Society, Health, and Illness
The focus of these studies is the social, environmental, and behavioural contexts of illness and the practice of medicine, especially in rural and remote areas. Broad societal issues are also covered, including health promotion, epidemiology, public health, community diversity, population and global health. You will also study the history and philosophy of the scientific approach to medicine, and approaches to knowledge and information, and hence develop a sound understanding of evidence-based medicine.

Theme III: Scientific Basis of Clinical Practice
These studies address human systems, and through them you will develop the knowledge and concepts that underpin both the basic medical sciences and in the clinical sciences.

Theme IV: Clinical Skills
This theme encompasses the whole range of clinical skills and will develop defined clinical competencies. This will begin with clinical aspects of communication skills and move through history taking and physical examinations to the more advanced clinical and procedural skills.

You will experience an interdisciplinary curriculum, organized to provide integration of structure and function within the biomedical sciences. The program presents a continually expanding level of medical experience, starting in the first semester of the course. In the early years, the basic medical sciences are taught in the context of their relevance to patient care. Later in the course, clinical teaching builds upon and reinforces this strong scientific foundation.

Clinical Placements
An emphasis on clinical communication skills and early clinical contact visits to medical practices, community care facilities and hospitals is a feature of the Monash medical degree. You will spend significant time in rural areas as part of a health-care team.

The School of Rural Health Churchill features a sophisticated clinical simulations centre and state-of-the-art clinical training facilities at the Latrobe Regional hospital, Warragul, Sale and Bairnsdale hospitals and GP learning centres across west, central, south, and east Gippsland.

Admission Requirements

1. Completed bachelor’s degree
Completed bachelor’s degree with a cumulative GPA of roughly 3.3 / 4.0 (approximately 80%+) over all years of study. The degree must consist of significant and broad biomedical science content (for example pharmacology, physiology, immunology, biochemistry, microbiology or genetics) to be eligible for consideration. Students are required to have considerable biomedical science experience in their degree, as outlined on the Monash website.

2. Interview
The multi-mini-interview (MMI) stations comprise a series of scenarios and associated questions focusing on an applicant’s relevant personal qualities including motivation, communication skills, critical thinking, and ethical/empathetic reasoning (worth 50%). At each station, you’ll be interviewed for 8 minutes followed by 2 minutes for scoring and changeover (10 minutes per station) with a “circuit” taking 40–50 minutes to complete.

3. Situational Judgement Test (SJT)
Shortlisted applicants will also be required to complete an online situational judgement test (SJT), which presents the test-taker with realistic, hypothetical scenarios and asks them to identify the most appropriate response or to rank the responses in the order they feel is most effective. You will be allocated up to 90 minutes to complete this test. Situational judgement tests assess your ability to choose the most appropriate action in a given situation (worth 10%).

Important note: All applicants are only required to attend the MMI and/or SJT once. Those who are re-applying for this course and have previously attended the MMI and/or SJT for this course are not required to attend the MMI and/or SJT again.

Admission Timeline

*While Monash University has a late-round application deadline of August 30, 2023 for the 2024 intake, you are encouraged to apply as early as possible.

2024 Admissions Timeline

Main Round

App deadline: June 29 2023
Interviews: Week of July 25, 2023
No MCAT required

Late Round

App deadline: August 30 2023
Interviews: Week of September 26, 2023
No MCAT required

1/3

“…love being rural in first year”

Small classes (just under 100 for the cohort but 20-40 for tutorials), very welcoming and friendly staff and student community, love being rural in first year, lots of hands-on learning (clinical skills, placement at the hospital, and cadaver labs). Being in Churchill for first year has been a really calm place to study but still has a solid library, study spaces, and gym facilities. Unfortunately, there's the expectation that students travel to Melbourne 1-3 times per month... Read More

Monash University Paige A
Bachelor of Medical Science / Doctor of Medicine
Monash University, 2023

“The people are extremely friendly and welcoming.”

Monash is a great place where live and make friends. It is more than just studying, indeed there are an infinite number of clubs to join and different activities to do. The program is very careful about its students well being and correct coping with the amount of studying to do. Students are then constantly monitored, to be sure that all the support they need is given to them. The people are extremely friendly and welcoming. It is really easy to make friends and share facts, l... Read More

Monash University Assia C
Medicine
Monash University, 2019

“Fantastic school”

Fantastic school, really good opportunity to learn clinical skills.

Monash University Andrew J
Medicine
Monash University, 2019