Class begins for first Deakin Medical School students

Deakin University today welcomed the first students to its new School of Medicine.

The 120 students were given an orientation to the medical course and the Geelong Campus at Waurn Ponds—where they will spend the first two years of the program—before classes start on Monday 11 February.

The Head of the School of Medicine, Professor Brendan Crotty, said he was delighted to welcome the first cohort of students to the University.

"This is a very exciting and historic time for the Deakin Medical School," Professor Crotty said. "A lot of hard work has taken place over the past two years to get to this point of opening the doors to our first medical students.

"We are very proud of the excellent medical education facilities we have built here at Waurn Ponds. The students will commence their studies in one of the most advanced teaching facilities in the country.

"When these students graduate in 2011, they will be well trained to enter general practice and specialist training programs and begin to redress the acute medical shortages in rural and regional areas."

Deakin University's School of Medicine is Victoria's first rural and regional medical school and aims to train a cohort of new doctors who are skilled and motivated to pursue a career in rural and regional areas, either as specialists or general practitioners. The course will give special attention to preventing and managing chronic diseases, working in teams, and developing procedural skills which are so important in areas away from the main hospital centres.

The School has enrolled 120 students in 2008 and will build up to 180 students per year from 2013.

Deakin Medical School students will spend the first two years of the program studying in a purpose-built, state of the art building on Deakin's Geelong Campus at Waurn Ponds. The last two years of the course will be completed in a range of hospitals, general practices and healthcare facilities attached to Deakin's ClinicalSchools in Geelong, Warrnambool, Ballarat and Box Hill.