Two of Australia’s largest institutions join forces to steup medical school

Charles Sturt University

The establishment of a rural medical school in Orange may be a little closer thanks to a partnership between two of Australia’s largest tertiary institutions.

Charles Sturt University (CSU) has teamed up with La Trobe University in order to present a united front to deliver much-wanted medical schools in regional Australia. CSU vice-chancellor professor Andrew Vann and La Trobe vice-chancellor professor John Dewar announced the innovative cross-border partnership.

“We are seeking approval to establish a rural medical school based at our campuses in Bendigo, Orange and Wagga Wagga,” he said.

“The medical school will provide opportunities for rural students to study medicine without having to leave the regions for a city university.”

Professor Vann said the partnership’s initial priority would be to collaborate to address rural doctor shortages in the Murray-Darling region. He said rural students were consistently under-represented in two-thirds of medical schools in Australia.

“We know that rural background students are the most likely to work in rural communities,” he said.

“The rural and regional foundations of both La Trobe and Charles Sturt Universities ensure the focus of the medical school would be on supporting regional communities to grow their own.”

Professor Dewar said they hoped to follow the success of James Cook University.

“[It] focuses on training doctors for northern Australia and apply that in inland Australia,” he said.

“We are ideal partners. We both have a commitment to the regions.

“We are the largest regional tertiary education providers in both New South Wales and Victoria.

“Coming together gives us the critical mass to be able to complement our existing training of nurses, paramedics, dentists, pharmacists and allied health courses with the one missing link in the region – medicine.”

Professor Vann said if an inland Australian medical school was not developed the shortage of rural doctors would worsen and communities’ health would suffer.

“Given the time it takes to train a doctor we must act now,” he said.