Budget windfall of $16.3 million for UOW’s medical student placements

May 09, 2007

The University of Wollongong’s ‘Budget wish’ of funding for medical student placements came to full fruition last night when the Federal Government announced the University would receive $16.3 million.

It is exactly the amount the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Gerard Sutton, had been seeking to help fund the medical student placements in regional and rural areas.

The Graduate School of Medicine, described as "a medical school for the 21st century", with its innovative curriculum and extensive use of medical education technology, began this year training 80 medical students at purpose-built medical training facilities at its Wollongong and Shoalhaven campuses. Fifty six students are based at UOW and 24 students in the Shoalhaven this year.

It has been established primarily to address the chronic shortage of doctors practising outside capital cities by training doctors to work in regional, rural and remote areas of Australia.

The Vice-Chancellor said the budget was far beyond his expectations and said it was particularly great news for the new medical school.

The Graduate School of Medicine has been developed as a community-based school, and has received enormous support from the medical community in the Illawarra and Shoalhaven, as well as the general community. About 300 medical practitioners in the Illawarra, Shoalhaven and Southern Highlands have joined the school as honorary associates, and will provide invaluable input into student training in the years to come.

The $16.3 million will come out of the Department of Health and Ageing’s budget over the next four years.

Speaking in his role as President of the Australian Vice-Chancellors’ Committee, Professor Sutton said the budget delivered a tremendous outcome for the sector as a whole, referring to the announcement of a massive $5 billion Higher Education Endowment Fund. The figure broadly doubles the existing financial investments and endowments of universities and the Government is promising to add further capital to the perpetual fund from future budget outcomes.

Universities will compete for grants to support capital works and research facilities from the dividends of the fund.

Education Minister Julie Bishop said the dividends would be distributed to universities which submitted proposals that “support Australian government policy with respect to specialisation, diversity and responsiveness to local labour market needs”.