it's pretty shit how they're separated into two different pools, based solely on where you live (as i've been told by many, including those who study MBBS at UWS).
anyone wanna clarify this?
Quoted from medstudentsonline aka MSO
UWS School of Medicine
The UWS School of Medicine accepted its first intake of students in 2007, after being accredited by the Australian Medical Council in 2006. It achieved federal government funding and state government support in 2004 as a means of addressing the emerging medical workforce shortage in Greater Western Sydney (GWS) and to improve retention of doctors in the area.
It offers a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) degree and is active in research at all levels.
The school is based at the University’s Campbelltown campus, an area being developed as a focal point for the teaching and research of health sciences and medicine at UWS. Clinical schools exist at Campbelltown and Blacktown Hospitals and will provide an introduction to clinical medicine for students in years 1 and 2 and clinical placements through years 3-5.
Greater Western Sydney
Greater Western Sydney has a population of 1.85 million people and is the second fastest growing population in Australia. It comprises 14 local government areas with a combined economic output totalling $54 billion per year – making it the third largest economy in Australia. It is also regarded as a being a particularly diverse and multicultural region of the country.
The GWS region is regarded as being critically under served by GPs and medical specialists and it is hoped the establishment of a medical school in the area will go some ways toward addressing the problem.
To qualify as a GWS applicant you must of one of the following local government electorates:
Auburn Council, Bankstown City Council, The Council of the Shire of Baulkham Hills, Blacktown City Council, Blue Mountains City Council, Camden Council, Campbelltown City Council, Fairfield City Council, Hawkesbury City Council, Holroyd City Council, Liverpool City Council, Parramatta City Council, Penrith City Council & Wollondilly Shire Council. [/font]
Student Demographics
In 2007, 104 Students were enrolled in the first year of the new UWS Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery course. Of these, 55% were female and 60% of students were residents of Greater Western Sydney, 11% of students were from interstate. About half of students were school leavers with students who had completed or commenced an initial degree making up the rest of the cohort. The vast majority of students were aged between 18 and 24 (94%), 4% of students were aged 25-34 and 2% were aged over 35.
In 2008, the student intake increased to approximately 120 students, including 5 international students.
Number of Places
Altogether 100-120 places will be offered.
· ~95 places will be Commonwealth-Supported Places (CSP)
· ~5-10 places will be Full-Fee paying (FFP) places
· In 2008, ~15 places will be offered for International Students
· Graduate CSP will make up ~25% of overall 95 places
· Graduate FFP places will make up ~25 of the overall 5-10 places
· Graduate International places will make up ~25% of the overall 15 places
Indigenous Students
The inaugural cohort contained 5 indigenous students. UWS recognises the need for a greater representation of indigenous students within the medical profession and is committed to maintaining indigenous representation. Indigenous applicants are assessed on a case-by-case basis with key determinants being desire to study medicine and perceived ability to handle the academic stress of a medicine course, as judged by the Dean and other UWS academics
Course Structure
The UWS Medical degree is five years in duration. In the first two years the course is built around PBL and the final three years are based in community and hospital settings within the GWS community.
In keeping with general trends across most medical schools of Australia, the course aims to integrate all aspects of the curriculum and actively encourage the practice of self-directed learning. As such, the basic sciences, clinical context and professional practice behind cases are brought together in a staged fashion to add relevance to student learning
Year 1 and 2
In the first two years the course structure is built around a weekly PBL case with lectures and practicals supporting the case content. The PBL case is introduced on the Monday with students developing learning issues that are further complemented by lectures and practicals. Students are presented initially with a ‘trigger’ and later a ‘history’ and ‘clinical examination results’, as they progress through the 2 hour tutorial. On the Friday, learning issues are presented in the PBL tutorials and aspects of the case are discussed. Investigation results may be presented and the tutorial concludes with a final clinical impression and closure. The UWS PBL system is explained in detail in
this thread.
The course content is divided into two streams;
Scientific Basis of Medicine (SBM) and
Health Practice (HP)
. The SBM unit is designed to provide students with an understanding of the principles behind body function and, later, a more in-depth look at each of the body systems, in turn. There are approximately 5 SBM lectures each week however this ranges from 1-8 depending on the week’s specific timetable. There is a computer or lab practical most weeks where attendance is compulsory. SBM content is generally built around the topics to be covered in each week’s PBL.
HP is designed to complement the PBL case and introduce aspects of professional practice relevant to the case. Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) was initially introduced as a part of HP but is expected to take on a more independent and structured role for the new first year class.
Year 3
In Year 3 Students will rotate between medicine, surgical and medicine in context attachments.
Medical and surgical attachments will be delivered within hospitals and will require students to become a part of the hospital ward team. This will include attendance at ward rounds and outpatient clinics as well as self-directed learning of clinical skills. Medicine in context will involve two six-week attachments each having a specific focus on a particular greater western sydney health concern; examples of these include: aged care, alcohol and drugs, children and youth, disability, housing and new communities, mental health, migrant health, public health, and women's health. These attachments will also include 1-2 days in a general practice setting.
During conference weeks all students (regardless of current rotation) will return to campbelltown campus for a week-long series of lectures and workshops. These weeks will ensure consistency of teaching and provide a method for teaching subject that would otherwise be difficult in a clinical setting (e.g. ENT, ophthalmology, dermatology etc).
Throughout the rest of years 3 to 5 online computer-based scientific streams will be conducted for students to work through at home, while they are partaking in associated clinical attachments. Each stream will take approximately 25 hours to complete and will aim to link together basic sciences, clinical medicine, and also population health.
As well as MCQ and SAQ exams, the scientific streams, and Mini-CEX, an EBM project will also be a part of the assessment during year 3.
Years 4 and 5
coming soon
Entry procedure
1. Applicants should lodge an application for selection to the School of Medicine, University of Western Sydney by the
30 September 2008. School leavers will need to submit a UAI prediction form as well as a registration form.
Note: GWS applicants should also lodge a Statutory declaration to ensure eligibility
2. Applicants should register with ACER (
www.acer.edu.au) to sit the Undergraduate Medicine and Health Sciences Admission Test (UMAT) by
6 June 2008
3. Applicants will need to sit the UMAT at the nominated test site on
30 July 2008
4. Those who receive an invitation will be required to attend an interview in early December
5. Applicants successful in gaining entry to the course will be notified by UAC
Greater Western Sydney(GWS) students eligible for GWS entry will need to fill an additional declaration of GWS residency, certified by a Justice of the Peace by the
30 September 2008.
Important dates
· Applications to the School of Medicine, University of Western Sydney, are too be lodged by
30 September 2008. Please note late applications will not be accepted.
· Applicants will need to register to sit the UMAT with ACER (
www.acer.edu.au) by
6 June 2008. Late applications will be accepted until 5pm AEST 15 July 2007 and a late fee will apply
· Applicants will need to sit the UMAT at the nominated test site on
30 July 2008
· Invitations for interviews will be released around November, 2008.
· The interviews will be conducted in early December. Please note a few interviews will be offered in early January for applicants whose predicted UAI was below the threshold but whose actual UAI was above the threshold required for consideration
Alternative entry
Advanced Science- First year interview offer
"If you meet the UAI requirements for Medicine but your application to study Medicine is unsuccessful, you will receive a guaranteed offer into the Bachelor of Science (Advanced). Each year up to six interview places for admission to the MBBS will be reserved for students in Year 1 of the Advanced Science program who meet specified criteria."
2009 Interview requirements (subject to change):
Please see the UWS Medicine 2009 prospectus for more details or contact or Ms. Penny Lee (School of Medicine, Admin Officer) on:
p.lee@uws.edu.au
Prerequisites
There are no formal prerequisites required for study however HSC level Chemistry and Biology are assumed knowledge
UAI and GPA
Students applying for entry in 2008 were required to achieve a minimum UAI threshold of 95.00 for non-GWS applicants or 93.00 for GWS applicants. The final ranks of applicants are not based on UAI; a student’s UAI plays no further role in admissions other than to differentiate between those who achieved the minimum UAI required and those who didn’t.
In 2007 the median UAI was about 98. There were 43% of students scoring between 98 and 100, 37% scoring between 95 and 97, and 20% scoring between 93 and 94. In 2008, the median UAI was about 99, please note that UAI is merely a hurdle at UWS and, provided a score over 95 (or 93 GWS applicants), is attained, there is no further consideration of UAI.
For those students who have undertaken one or more years of tertiary (university) study, but not completed their degree, students must have attained
either a UAI of 95 (93 for GWS applicants)
or a GPA of 5.5. It is not necessary to fulfil both of these requirements.
For graduate students, a GPA of 5.5 or above must have been attained in their bachelor degree (if their undergraduate degree is combined both degrees are included).
For more information please see the
MBBS Entry Requirements (pdf)
UMAT
The UMAT is worth 33.3% of applicant’s final rank and is used to decide which applicants will be invited for an interview. A formula (unknown) is applied to the raw UMAT score for each of the three sections in order to calculate a final score. In 2007 successful applicants were in the top 10% of all students who took the UMAT. A non-GWS applicant required a UMAT raw score of 183 to be offered an interview while a GWS applicant required a raw score of 164.
It is believed that in 2008 the UMAT raw score required to gain an interview offer is slightly higher than that of 2007.
Interview
Applicants who achieve the required minimum UAI score and UMAT raw score are invited to attend an interview. There are about 400 people interviewed for a total of about 115 places. The interview is worth 66.6% of the applicants final rank.
The interview system used is the Multi-station Mini Interview (MMI). This involves a series of stations that are intended to assess a variety of desirable skills such as empathy, communication, stress and coping skills, teamwork etc as well as traditional queries about motivation to study medicine and background. This style of interview is favoured because of its ability to dilute the chances of interviewer/situational bias.
In 2008, there were 8 different stations with 8 different interviewers. It is thought that this will reduce the impact of ‘easy’ or ‘hard’ interviewers.