Hey, I'm currently in my 2nd year of the UQ Med programme.
I agree wholly with the above poster about Brissie and the lifestyle/cost here. It's a beautiful place, and the people are good too.
However, the medical school is a much different story.. Here's my laundry list of disadvantages found at the UQ med programme:
- The curriculum is not organised clearly - ie. what they want from us is not clearly laid out, and their examination methods are poor.
- Overall, the clinical exposure is nice, although even there the flawed organisation is evident. I'm not sure why, but it seems that many clinical coaches are surprised to have med students to teach. Additionally, the ones that know we're going to be meeting them often have no idea what the uni expects us to know for our clinical testing. I'm assuming this is because the school makes little effort to communicate with the doctors, and not that all the clinicians are unable to figure such a simple thing out.
- Lectures are sometimes good, but most of the time they overlap or cover material that is only relevant if you're in the line of work that the researcher is in. They seem to have become more interesting and clinically relevant this year, but their relevance regarding examined knowledge is questionable.
-Class sizes are going to get bigger.. much, much bigger. I'm not sure exactly what this increase is going to mean, but I suspect it's going to create even more problems with organisation.
-International tuition!!! It sucks. It's expensive. It's getting more expensive every year (ie. they raise the tuition of enrolled internationals by about 3% every year). There's a rumour I've heard that not all schools in Oz raise your international fees yearly.. don't quote me on that one.. still, be prepared to pay a LOT.
ANYWAY, I am personally still happy with my choice to come here, if only for the weather and the people I've met. The programme is so lacking, however, that I would strongly suggest you look into other Aussie programmes and compare them. From what I can see on the website, Flinders is MUCH more organized and international-friendly (ie. has 3rd and 4th year rotations set up so internationals have the pre-reqs to go get their required experience overseas at the beginning of 4th year). Other schools may be good as well - I was just struck by the number of things that would be easier if I were at Flinders (as an international, of course).
On a cheerful note, you'll love Australia! It's not home so you'll still miss a lot of things, but it's a friendly, warm, safe place to be for 4 years. And the increased responsibility of almost exclusively teaching yourself medicine will be a benefit in the long run. Just make sure you have enough discipline to sit down and do what you're here to do. If you do, then even the rotten programme won't hold you down. =)
Cheers.
P.S. With the future class size being what it is, I don't think that there remains much doubt as to the feasibility of staying here as an international. It's not very feasible. But that's a different discussion altogether...
