What da heck is the Med faculty thinking??!! - Part 1

Are you concerned about the quality of your education?
At the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting earlier this year, it was decided to increase the cap on full-fee medicine places from 10 per cent to 25 per cent, as a supposed method of dealing with the shortage of doctors in rural areas. We recently received confirmation that Monash University will be increasing its full-fees places in the medical course to the 25 per cent maximum. The AMSA, Monash Student Association, Wildfire and Melbourne University Student Union are disappointed with this decision for the following reasons:
There is no evidence or valid rationale for the introduction of full-fee places to address Australia's current workforce maldistribution. There is evidence, however, that debt strongly influences the specialties and locations in which graduates work. Graduating with debt also has an impact on personal choices (decisions to start a family, buy a house) and increases their levels of stress.
Increasing student numbers once again could potentially impact upon the quality of our training unless other measures are also adopted. This position is echoed by the Australian Medical Association (AMA). Recent research undertaken at Monash University and published in the Medical Journal of Australia argues that the massive hike in student numbers in recent years is not a viable solution to the workforce maldistribution in the long-term.
Investing in Commonwealth-Supported Places rather than more full-fee places opens the study of medicine to a larger and more diverse pool of students. This is a far more equitable approach to selecting our future medical workforce.
‘The Vice Chancellor (Richard Larkins) assures us that this is about addressing shortages in the medical workforce, but we know from the evidence that fees and debt are strong disincentives for graduates to enter specialties and locations that are short of doctors,’ Ms Cosgriff said. ‘Rural general practice will continue to face shortages.’‘Monash University was recently granted 40 Commonwealth-Supported Places in the most recent allocation. CSPs remain a far more equitable approach to selecting our future medical workforce,’ Ms Cosgriff said. ‘The university’s priority should not be the creation of new full-fee places. Rather, it needs to invest in ensuring that these new places are sufficiently resourced and supervised.‘Is this merely an attempt by Monash University to increase its revenue? If so, then we must not kid ourselves that it is acting with nobler objectives in mind.’An online petition has been set up and students are encouraged to send a message to Monash Vice Chancellor, Richard Larkins, voicing their concerns about the increase in full-fee places. The website will be operational from Friday 5 May.

www.amsa.org.au