Medical Graduates

Current Data

In 2012, a total of 3,284 students graduated from Australian medical schools. Of these, 2,777 or 84.6% were domestic students (Table 2.19).

Trends

Each year the number of domestic medical graduates has increased. The increase was 10.8% from 2011 to 2012 and there was an overall increase of 59.8% in domestic graduates across the last five years from 2008 to 2012 (Table 2.21).

From 2008 to 2012 the number of domestic medical graduates increased in each state and territory apart from Australian Capital Territory, which decreased by 3.3%. The greatest increases were in New South Wales and Victoria, by 81.4% and 79.9% respectively (Table 2.19).

Table 2.19: Domestic medical school graduates in Australian universities, by state/territory, 2008–2012

	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	Increase 2008 – 2012	Increase 2008 – 2012 (%)
(a) First students graduated from Bond in 2009, Wollongong in 2010, Deakin, Monash PG, Notre Dame Sydney and University of Western Sydney in 2011. (b) First students will graduate from Melbourne Doctor of Medicine program in 2014. Source: Medical Deans Australia and New Zealand Inc
New South Wales
Newcastle/UNE	77	85	104	70	140	63	81.8
Notre Dame Sydney(a)	..	..	..	103	106	..	..
Sydney	208	208	221	222	237	29	13.9
UNSW	177	163	166	187	198	21	11.9
UWS(a)	..	..	..	86	91	..	..
Wollongong(a)	..	..	63	67	66	..	..
Total NSW	462	456	554	735	838	376	81.4
Victoria
Deakin(a)	..	..	..	109	123	..	..
Melbourne(b)	199	198	212	234	231	32	16.1
Monash(a)	159	165	181	219	290	131	82.4
Total Vic	358	363	393	562	644	286	79.9
Queensland
Bond(a)	..	55	74	81	69	..	..
Griffith	70	116	151	133	150	80	114.3
Queensland	238	279	332	290	307	69	29.0
James Cook	66	82	94	88	92	26	39.4
Total Qld	374	532	651	592	618	244	65.2
Western Australia
Notre Dame Fremantle	75	80	86	98	104	29	38.7
UWA	142	182	207	172	165	23	16.2
Total WA	217	262	293	270	269	52	24.0
South Australia
Adelaide	98	83	94	97	111	13	13.3
Flinders	75	74	102	109	113	38	50.7
Total SA	173	157	196	206	224	51	29.5
Tasmania
Tasmania	64	73	89	67	97	33	51.6
Australian Capital Territory
ANU	90	72	83	75	87	-3	-3.3
Total	1,738	1,915	2,259	2,507	2,777	1,039	59.8
Annual increase		177	344	248	270
Annual increase (%)		10.2	18.0	11.0	10.8

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After decreasing in 2011 for the first time since 2008, the number of international students graduating from Australian medical schools increased in 2012 by a total of 10.9%. Overall, the number of international graduates increased by 26.4% from 2008 to 2012 (Table 2.20).

Table 2.20: International medical school graduates in Australian universities by state/territory, 2008–2012

	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	Change 2008 – 2012	Change 2008 – 2012 (%)
(a) First students graduated from Bond in 2009, Wollongong in 2010, Deakin, Monash PG, Notre Dame Sydney and University of Western Sydney in 2011. (b) First students will graduate from Melbourne Doctor of Medicine program in 2014. Source: Medical Deans Australia and New Zealand Inc
New South Wales
Newcastle/UNE	18	21	21	20	29	11	61.1
Notre Dame Sydney(a)	..	..	..	0	0	..	..
Sydney	55	54	35	32	38	-17	-30.9
UNSW	39	36	55	36	46	7	17.9
UWS(a)	..	..	..	..	9	..	..
Wollongong(a)	..	..	4	10	11	..	..
Total NSW	112	111	115	98	133	21	18.8
Victoria
Deakin(a)	..	..	..	0	1	..	..
Melbourne(b)	88	97	90	89	83	-5	-5.7
Monash(a)	52	74	94	70	67	15	28.8
Total Vic	140	171	184	159	151	11	7.9
Queensland
Bond(a)	..	4	1	1	1	..	..
Griffith	0	2	0	0	..	..	..
Queensland	51	67	77	98	130	79	154.9
James Cook	0	2	3	2	3	..	..
Total Qld	51	75	81	101	134	83	162.7
Western Australia
Notre Dame Fremantle	0	0	0	0	0	..	..
UWA	10	15	25	27	21	11	110.0
Total WA	10	15	25	27	21	11	110.0
South Australia
Adelaide	48	38	40	21	24	-24	-50.0
Flinders	22	28	14	19	19	-3	-13.6
Total SA	70	66	54	40	43	-27	-38.6
Tasmania
Tasmania	14	21	11	28	16	2	14.3
Australian Capital Territory
ANU	4	6	4	4	9	5	125.0
Total	401	465	474	457	507	106	26.4

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Table 2.21 shows that just over half of all medical graduates, both domestic and international, were females (53.2% for domestic and 52.9% for international in 2012).

Table 2.21: Medical graduates: Domestic, international and proportions of females, 2008–2012

	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	Change 2008 – 2012 (%)
Source: Medical Deans Australia and New Zealand Inc
Domestic	1,738	1,915	2,259	2,507	2,777	59.8
Proportion domestic (%)	81.3	80.5	82.7	84.6	84.6	4.1
Proportion female (%)	57.2	54.1	54.1	55.0	53.2	-7.0
International	401	465	474	457	507	26.4
Proportion international (%)	18.7	19.5	17.3	15.4	15.4	-17.6
Proportion females (%)	54.6	51.6	54.2	51.6	52.9	-3.1
Total	2,139	2,380	2,733	2,964	3,284	53.5
Annual increase (%)		11.3	14.8	8.5	10.8

In 2012, 79.5% of medical graduates were Commonwealth-supported (Table 2.22)

Table 2.22: Medical graduates by type of student place: Number and proportion of places, 2012

Medical Graduates
Source: Medical Deans Australia and New Zealand Inc
Commonwealth-supported	2,612
HECS only	1,879
BMPS	633
MRBSS	100
Fee-paying	663
Domestic	156
International	507
Other	9
Total	3,284
Proportion of places (%)
Commonwealth-supported	79.5
HECS only	57.2
BMPS	19.3
MRBSS	3.0
Fee-paying	20.2
Domestic	4.8
International	15.4
Other	0.3

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Projected Numbers of Graduates

Table 2.23 shows the projected number of medical graduates up until 2018. These figures are based on current and planned enrolments as of 2013. Attrition has not been factored into these figures. Attrition rates for medical courses are anticipated to be relatively low when compared to other courses, and this may be explored further in future reports.

The number of domestic medical graduates is projected to rise from 2,970 in 2013 to 3,178 in 2018 (Table 2.23). This is an overall increase of 7.0% over the five years from 2013 to 2018.

Table 2.23: Domestic medical students expected to graduate from Australian universities: Projected numbers^(a) by state/territory, 2013–2018

	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018
UG – undergraduate PG – postgraduate MD – Doctor of Medicine (a) No allowance has been made for student attrition. (b) Program commences in 2014. First students will graduate in 2017. Source: Medical Deans Australia and New Zealand Inc
New South Wales
Newcastle/UNE	151	186	178	179	192	170
Notre Dame Sydney	108	108	115	125	120	120
Sydney	236	265	220	232	228	228
UNSW	212	232	225	187	216	214
UWS	107	112	105	107	103	102
Wollongong	72	75	76	76	75	75
Total NSW	886	978	919	906	934	909
Victoria
Deakin	144	131	132	131	130	130
Melbourne MD	0	302	289	294	295	295
Melbourne PG	77	3	4	0	0	0
Melbourne UG	166	0	6	2	0	0
Monash PG	64	68	82	75	72	72
Monash UG	237	285	263	248	263	259
Total Vic	688	789	776	750	760	756
Queensland
Bond	83	80	77	92	95	95
Griffith	153	147	149	152	154	155
Queensland	313	320	308	308	300	300
James Cook	137	143	170	171	175	203
Total Qld	686	690	704	723	724	753
Western Australia
Notre Dame Fremantle	98	96	98	111	106	106
UWA PG	58	58	60	58	0	0
UWA UG	126	134	147	130	0	0
UWA MD(b)	0	0	0	0	209	209
Total WA	282	288	305	299	315	315
South Australia
Adelaide	127	153	150	157	164	124
Flinders	111	121	143	143	136	136
Total SA	238	274	293	300	300	260
Tasmania
Tasmania	105	88	97	86	104	95
Australian Capital Territory
ANU	85	93	83	100	90	90
Total	2,970	3,200	3,177	3,164	3,227	3,178

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The projected numbers of international students to graduate from Australian universities are also expected to increase, rising by (17.7%) from 525 in 2013 to 618 in 2018 (Table 2.24).

Table 2.24: International medical students expected to graduate from Australian universities: Projected numbers^(a) by state/territory, 2013–2018

	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018
UG – undergraduate PG – postgraduate MD – Doctor of Medicine (a) No allowance has been made for student attrition. (b) Includes international medical university students. (c) Excludes the UQ Ochsner (USA) cohort, but have been included in the table for information. (d) Program commences in 2014. First students will graduate in 2017. Source: Medical Deans Australia and New Zealand Inc
New South Wales
Newcastle/UNE	22	38	29	26	34	32
Notre Dame Sydney	0	0	0	0	0	0
Sydney	53	58	70	78	80	80
UNSW(b)	63	54	60	63	62	59
UWS	7	23	15	23	17	20
Wollongong	8	7	9	9	12	12
Total NSW	153	180	183	199	205	203
Victoria
Deakin	5	2	6	5	12	12
Melbourne MD	0	23	36	36	40	42
Melbourne PG	14	0	0	0	0	0
Melbourne UG	73	0	1	1	0	0
Monash PG	6	15	10	7	10	10
Monash UG	58	49	53	63	58	56
Total Vic	156	89	106	112	120	120
Queensland
Bond	2	2	2	2	1	1
Griffith	0	0	0	6	8	10
Queensland(b)	126	108	132	113	120	120
UQ Ochsner (USA)	24	36	76	105	110	110
James Cook	2	23	27	17	23	34
Total Qld(c)	130	133	161	138	152	165
Western Australia
Notre Dame WA	0	0	0	0	0	0
UWA PG	0	0	0	9	0	0
UWA UG	28	31	32	22	0	0
UWA MD(c)	0	0	0	0	30	30
Total WA	28	31	32	31	30	30
South Australia
Adelaide	25	36	21	15	25	35
Flinders	11	20	20	25	30	30
Total SA	36	56	41	40	55	65
Tasmania
Tasmania(b)	14	27	23	25	25	25
Australian Capital Territory
ANU	8	9	9	8	10	10
Total(d)	525	525	555	553	597	618

Table 2.25 summaries the number of domestic and international students projected to graduate from Australian universities between 2013 and 2018.

In total, 3,796 medical students are expected to graduate in 2018 (Table 2.25), 8.6% more than predicted for 2013. This is 15.6% higher than the actual number of medical students who graduated in 2012 (3,284) and 77.5% higher than the 2,139 medical students who graduated in 2008.

Table 2.25: Medical students expected to graduate from Australian universities: Projected number of domestic and international students, 2013–2018

	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	Increase 2013 – 2018 (%)
(a) Excludes the UQ Ochsner (USA) cohort and Monash-Malaysia cohort. Source: Medical Deans Australia and New Zealand Inc
Domestic	2,970	3,200	3,177	3,164	3,227	3,178	7.0
International(a)	525	525	555	553	597	618	17.7
Total	3,495	3,725	3,732	3,717	3,824	3,796	8.6
Change from previous year		230	7	-15	107	-28
Change from previous year (%)		6.6	0.2	-0.4	2.9	-0.7