Education
UNSW Medicine & Health aims to develop compassionate innovators and global leaders in health through transformative education and learning experiences. The actions we set in motion here will be felt across Australia’s health landscape for years to come. As lifelong education partners for our students and alumni, our vision for education is bold, yet simple: to develop compassionate innovators and global leaders in health.
New health professional programs
We're shaping the future of health with our new suite of degrees in:
Bachelor of Exercise Science/Master of Physiotherapy and Exercise Physiology
Bachelor of Nutrition/Master of Dietetics and Food Innovation
Launching in early 2023, our new and unique primary and allied health programs offer extensive practical and interdisciplinary training to prepare students for their future profession in health. Students graduate with both a bachelors and a masters degree, giving them a competitive edge in the workforce. We have crafted an embedded professional practice stream, where students study together with our other health programs to gain the critical interprofessional and clinical skills they need for real-world practice. With a focus on social justice and ethical practice, students will be able to understand and respond to the health needs of diverse populations.
Medicine program redesign
Healthcare will change rapidly over the next 10-15 years, driven by rapid growth in understanding and use of genetics/genomics, technological advances and the incorporation of artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to facilitate clinical decision-making.
These changes are likely to result in different models of care including increased emphasis on prevention, diversity in care pathways, remote monitoring of physiological parameters, exercise, nutrition and disease progression. We'll likely see increased home-based and community care and individuals being active partners in their own care as well as increased emphasis on multidisciplinary, team-based care.
We're embarking on an ambitious project to redesign our undergraduate Medicine program with the first cohort of students anticipated to begin in early 2027. There will be an increased focus on interprofessional learning and teamwork, lifelong learning, an increased focus on understanding genetics/genomics, interpretation of big data and patient advocacy. We'll continue to emphasise critical and creative thinking, problem solving and adaptive leadership as well as communication and teamwork skills, cultural awareness, and self-reflection.
Student wellbeing
We see education holistically, and put student wellbeing, equity and personalised development at the heart of all our programs.
We aim to attract and retain the best students from diverse backgrounds and support them through the student lifecycle. We pursue equity of access to education, and have created support initiatives for students who enter via alternative pathways. All our programs have Student Wellbeing & Action Groups, and we're creating peer-to-peer and formal mentoring programs.