Admission requirements

Selection process for all applicants

The medicine course at Monash University is only available to:

• current Year 12 students or
• applicants who have completed VCE (or equivalent) no more than two years previously and have not undertaken any tertiary studies since then.

Prerequisites for students in Year 12

VTAC application procedures

Students studying Year 12 are required to obtain a study score of at least 30 in English and Chemistry.

These are the only prerequisites

All applicants (other than international applicants) are required to sit an aptitude test. The UMAT (Undergraduate Medicine and Health Sciences Admission Test) is the aptitude test required for admission to the Monash undergraduate-entry MBBS course.

The UMAT examination is usually conducted in late July. See the UMAT website for registration and examination details

Selection into the Extended Rural Cohort stream of the medical course will be based upon a combination of the applicant UMAT, ENTER and performance at a semi-structured interview. The interview is a significant component of the selection process.

VTAC application procedures

The VTAC Guide, containing information about application procedures, is published annually in August by the:

Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre
40 Park Street, South Melbourne,
VIC 3205
Telephone: 1300 364 133
Applications must be submitted to VTAC during September.

Interviews

Applicants who have met the prerequisites will be called for an interview in late November or December, with pre-selection based on the UMAT score. In addition, the majority of applicants for the Dean's Rural List will be interviewed.

Applicants will be advised of the location of interviews. Interviews will be conducted at the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Wellington Road, Clayton.

The Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences will determine those applicants who are to be interviewed. Applicants cannot request an interview, except in the following circumstances.

Special early or late interview

In exceptional circumstances, where applicants invited for interview have planned overseas travel commitments and will be unavailable in December, the faculty may grant an early or late interview. These special interviews will be conducted by the end of the first week of December and on one interview day in early January.

Potential Dean's Rural List applicants may also apply for an early or late interview prior to their eligibility being determined by the faculty. Only those subsequently deemed eligible will remain in the final ranked list.

Applications for an early or late interview must be received, in writing, at the Medicine Admissions Office (date to be announced) and should include written support from the School Principal and documentary evidence of the reasons for unavailability during December (e.g. copy of airline ticket or travel itinerary).

Final selection

The final ranked list of applicants from which places will be offered will take into account the applicant’s UMAT score, ENTER and performance at interview.

Semi-structured interview

The selection interview, of approximately 45 minutes, is conducted by a three-member panel of trained interviewers.

The interview questions have been designed to determine which applicants have relevant personal qualities such as leadership ability and motivation to succeed in the medical course.

There are two groups of questions:
Accomplishment questions: applicants are asked to tell the panel about past accomplishments that might demonstrate particular personal qualities.
Situational questions: applicants are asked to explain what they might do if they find themselves in particular situations.
In the interview, the panel will try to assess several personal qualities in each applicant, including:

1. Quality of motivation
   Applicants should be able to demonstrate a realistic knowledge and understanding of what is involved in both the medical course and a career in medicine. Applicants for the Extended Rural Cohort stream will particularly be asked about their motivation for a career as a medical practitioner in a rural/regional setting.
2. Appropriateness of interpersonal style
   Applicants should be able to discuss leadership, particularly the ability to inspire other people, and teamwork, particularly the ability to work within a collaborative unit. We expect our students to have the ability to listen and be non-judgmental and to have the flexibility to adapt to new situations. All of these attributes should be developed to an extent appropriate to the applicant’s age and maturity.
3. Communication skill
   Doctors must be able to communicate effectively with others. We expect our applicants to demonstrate appropriate ability in communication skills during the interview.
   As part of the assessment of communication skill, applicants may be asked to "de-technicalise" a scientific concept, i.e. to explain the concept in non-technical terms. Applicants may also be asked to discuss a topical issue in health and to participate in an "active listening exercise" in which they may be expected to answer specific questions concerning a short story read to them by one of the panel members.

Health requirements and police checks

The faculty has an Immunisation and Infection Risk Policy and students are required to comply with a number of recommendations and procedures to enable them to proceed through the course with an acceptably low level of risk.

A satisfactory police check is also required for each student.

Student Registration

All MBBS students must be registered with the Medical Practitioners Board of Victoria in order to have access to clinical placements. The faculty will advise students on the procedure as part of the enrolment process.