Education minister announces go ahead for University of Wollongong's medical school

Aug 02, 2004

The Minister for Education, Science and Training, Dr Brendan Nelson, will today (August 2) announce the establishment of a graduate medical school for the University of Wollongong starting in 2006. The Government will provide capital funding of $10 million.

The school will be based on an exciting new model that aims to meet the critical shortage of doctors in regional, rural and remote areas of Australia and prepare them for expected medical advances in the 21st century.

The medical school will be based at the University's campuses in the Shoalhaven and Wollongong, drawing on medical practitioners from these respective communities to help drive the teaching program.The medical students will be selected from regional, rural and remote areas of Australia.

The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Wollongong, Professor Gerard Sutton, said it was best to imagine the new medical school as a mosaic representing what has been successfully implemented elsewhere in the world and what is envisioned by others as necessary in the future in medical education.

The graduate medical school will have key linkages with overseas medical institutions and an advisory board that will bring together some of the world's leading medical practitioners.

Medical practitioners in Wollongong and Shoalhaven have strongly backed the formation of the new school.

Professor Sutton paid special tribute to the efforts of the Education Minister, Dr Nelson, and the Member for Gilmore, Joanna Gash, in helping to establish the case with their Federal Government colleagues for the establishment of the school.

For further information: contact the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Gerard Sutton, on (02) 4221 3909; or Bernie Goldie from the Media Unit on 0412 454 124.

For more information, contact:

media@uow.edu.au
University of Wollongong
Ph: (02) 4221 5942; fax (02) 4221 3128