Program Structure

The new six-year Medicine program has a modular structure comprising a series of fully integrated courses studied over 27 teaching periods, each of 8 weeks duration. There are 4 teaching periods in every year (Teaching Periods 1-4), and an additional fifth teaching period (Summer Teaching Period) in years 4-6.

The commencement dates of Teaching Periods 1 and 3 correspond to the beginning dates of the standard UNSW academic sessions 1 and 2 respectively, and the Summer Teaching Period generally commences on the third Monday in January.

The Program is divided into three phases, each of approximately 2 years duration. Learning and teaching in each phase is organized broadly around the human life cycle. This is reflected in the four fundamental domains of the program, each of which has four major themes which provide opportunities for students to engage content in an integrated fashion in the contexts of health scenarios, clinical presentations, or specific patient problems encountered during clinical experience.

Content to be studied has been broadened to include aspects of both proactive and reactive approaches to health issues in both individuals and populations, and is organised into content streams - the biomedical sciences, the social and psychological aspects of health and illness, and medical practice.

The learning process emphasises student autonomy, learning from experience, collaborative learning, and the development of adult teacher-learner relationships. Assessment is outcome-based requiring students to demonstrate capability in a range of medicine-specific as well as more generic capabilities.

An example of courses studied in the Medicine Program

The order of courses is prescribed in phase 1 but flexible in terms of order and choice in phases 2 and 3. All courses are 8 weeks in duration.


The Foundations course is an integrated eight-week experience for new students which aims to provide them with an approach to independent and collaborative learning that is one of the hallmarks of the new curriculum.

The Phase 3 courses may relate to more than one domain depending on the nature of the clinical setting.

Themes

Within each domain, there are four major themes (see table below). These 16 themes are key over-arching concepts considered critical to understanding health, illness and medical practice.