Admission Guidelines

Application Process

Take time to read all the admission requirements on the MChD programs and course webpage & the MChD program webpage.

It is highly recommended that International applicants engage the service of an ANU education agent representative to apply to the program.

Qualifications

Applicants must have completed or be studying the final year of a Bachelor degree at the time of application. Applicants who have completed a postgraduate qualification are welcome to apply, but must have completed a Bachelor degree previously.

If your Bachelor degree was completed more than 10 years ago, you will need to meet additional study requirements to be eligible to apply.

Higher-level qualifications such as Honours, Graduate Diplomas and Masters by coursework may be taken into consideration if the program is complete or you are in your final year of the program at the time of application. Applicants who have completed a higher-level qualification but do not hold a recognised Bachelor degree are not eligible for consideration.

Degrees undertaken in Australia must be from a Commonwealth-accredited institution and must be completed at AQF Level 7 at minimum. Degrees undertaken overseas must be from a recognised institution and must be equivalent to an Australian degree of the same level.

Conversion degrees are not accepted. A conversion degree is defined as a Bachelor degree that includes more than 1.0 FTE of credit from previous studies undertaken below AQF Level 7 (e.g. a Bachelor degree containing prior credit from a TAFE certificate).

All prior study (including incomplete qualifications) must be declared on your application.

Prerequisites

There are no preferred Bachelor degrees or prerequisite courses for entry to the MChD program. We welcome applicants from a variety of undergraduate backgrounds and consider all applicants equally. Your Bachelor degree can be undertaken in any academic discipline and does not need to be related to health or medicine. However, there will be some assumed science knowledge in the GAMSAT test.

Applicants who have completed a higher-level qualification but do not hold a recognised Bachelor degree are not eligible for consideration. Honours, Graduate Diploma and coursework Masters qualifications will only be considered if the applicant has already completed a recognised Bachelor degree prior to undertaking the higher-level study.

Currency of Qualification

Applicants whose Bachelor degree was awarded more than 10 years ago will need to meet further study requirements to be eligible to apply.

Applicants are required to have completed their Bachelor degree within 10 years prior to the date of application. If your Bachelor degree was officially completed more than 10 years ago, the ‘10 year rule’ may be waived if you have undertaken additional undergraduate or postgraduate study in the intervening period — this must be evidenced by successful completion of at least 0.5 years of full-time equivalent study (0.5 EFTSL) at Bachelor level (or higher) in a Commonwealth-accredited program in the 10 years prior to the date of application.

A study load of 0.5 EFTSL is usually equivalent to one semester of full-time study or two semesters of part-time study. You should contact your institution directly to confirm the study load of any courses/units undertaken at that university.

The Weighted GPA Calculation

The GPA calculation is based on three years of full-time equivalent study (3.0 EFTSL) in your most recent eligible degree, or combination of eligible degrees (if applicable). For the purpose of the GPA calculation, eligible degrees include Bachelor, Honours, Graduate Diploma and coursework Masters programs. Course results from eligible degrees will be included in the GPA calculation if the degree is already complete or due to be completed by 31 December in the year of application.

The ANU uses a weighted GPA calculation for admission to the MChD program. This means that your most recent results are weighted more heavily:

• Final GPA Year – Weighted x3
• Final-1 GPA Year – Weighted x2
• Final-2 GPA Year – Weighted x1

If your most recent eligible degree comprises less than 3.0 EFTSL worth of study, course results from your next-most-recent eligible degree(s) will be used to make up the remainder of the 3.0 EFTSL.

For example, if you completed a 2-year Masters by coursework after your Bachelor degree, your GPA would be calculated using 2.0 EFTSL worth of course results from the Masters, and the remaining 1.0 EFTSL worth of course results would be taken from the final year of your Bachelor degree.

Where an applicant is completing the final year of their degree in the year of application, the current year of study will only be included in the GPA calculation if at least 0.375 FTE worth of graded course results from Semester/Trimester 1 are available to be used in the calculation at the time of assessment. If at least 0.375 FTE worth of graded results are not yet available, the Final GPA Year will be excluded from the calculation and the GPA will be calculated using only the Final-1 (x2) and Final-2 (x1) GPA years.

Ungraded Pass (UGP/CRS) results will not be included in the GPA calculation. We will include UGPs in the ‘credit count’ for a particular GPA year, however, they are excluded from the calculation and that particular GPA ‘year’ will be calculated based only on the available graded course results.

At minimum, the applicant must have at least 0.375 FTE of graded results in at least 2 of the 3 GPA years to have a valid GPA calculated.

Please note that Graduate Certificates, Masters by Research and PhDs are not included in the GPA calculation. However, completion of some higher-level qualifications may attract a percentage bonus. Please refer to the Higher Degree Bonus section for further information.

There are helpful GPA calculation guides available on the GEMSAS website.

Rurality

In line with federal government initiatives, 29% of the annual ANU intake of medical students should be of rural background. The Modified Monash Model is how the Department of Health define whether a location is a city, rural, remote or very remote. The model measures remoteness and population size on a scale of MM 1 to MM 7. If you have resided in an Australian rural area, MM 2 to 7, for 5 years consecutively or 10 years cumulatively you may be eligible for consideration in the rural sub-quota.

If you wish to be considered in the rural sub-quota you will need to complete the Rurality question in the GEMSAS application form and submit your supporting documentation to GEMSAS. You can check the MM classification of your address by visiting the Department of Health’s DoctorConnect website.

Bonded Medical Program

The Bonded Medical Program helps address the shortage of medical professionals in regional, rural and remote areas of Australia. It provides a Commonwealth Supported Place in a medical course in exchange for participants working in those areas after they graduate. Learn more.

Higher Degree Bonus

Honours

A percentage bonus of 2% may be awarded for completion of a standalone Honours degree if the qualification is already complete or due to be completed by December 31 in the year of application. The bonus applies to standalone Honours degrees only. Embedded and professional Honours programs are included in the GPA calculation but do not receive the percentage bonus.

Masters by Research or PhD

A percentage bonus may be awarded for completion of a Masters by Research (2%) or PhD (4%) if the qualification is completed prior to the date of application.

Note

The percentage bonus is applied to the combined GPA/GAMSAT score, therefore applicants must meet the individual GPA and GAMSAT minimum requirements before they can be eligible for the bonus.

Applicants cannot accumulate additional bonuses for completing more than one of the degrees listed above. If an applicant has completed more than one qualification that is eligible for a bonus, only the highest bonus will apply.

English Language

All applicants must meet the Australian National University's English language requirements for graduate admission. Please refer to the ANU Policy Library for further details.

GAMSAT & MCAT

The Graduate Australian Medical Schools Admissions Test (GAMSAT) is a requirement for all Domestic applicants applying to the ANU Medical School.

International applicants can sit the GAMSAT or the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT). For information about the test and for important dates and locations please visit their respective websites.

For the purpose of admissions, GAMSAT & MCAT results are valid for four years from the date of exam sitting.

Applicants cannot use results from the University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT) or Undergraduate Medicine and Health Sciences Admission Test (UMAT) to apply.

Offer Deferrals

An offer of a place to the MChD program is only valid for the year in which it is offered. The ANU will not consider deferrals for students in this program.

Transfers

Requests for direct transfers will not be considered. All years of the MChD program are at full enrolment capacity and the ANU is unable to accommodate additional students transferring into this program from other medical schools.

However, students from other medical schools are welcome to apply for the next available intake into Year 1 of the MChD program through the standard application procedure outlined on the MChD Program Webpage.

Graduate Information

Overseas Recognition

The MChD qualification is recognised in countries outside Australia through its accreditation by the Australian Medical Council and listing on the International Medical Education Directory and the World Health Organisation Medical School Directory.

However, specific countries may require additional steps to be completed before the degree is recognised by that country.

MChD graduates wishing to register and practice in countries other than Australia must satisfy that country's requirements for foreign medical graduates.

Registration

Students who plan to start working as a medical practitioner in Australia upon graduation are encouraged to apply for registration early, four to six weeks before completing their course. Registration is completed through the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA).

Students should be aware of the AHPRA registration standards as some of the common registration standards may differ from the admissions standards that students needed to meet at the ANU.