Doctor of Philosophy (College of Medicine)

The Doctor of Philosophy (College of Medicine) at the University of Notre Dame Australia is a research doctorate for people who want to answer a question that matters in medicine and health. You spend your candidature on one substantial project, working under supervision, and you finish by submitting a thesis that makes an original contribution to your field. The College of Medicine covers areas like clinical research, population health, biomedical science and health services, so your project will sit somewhere in that space depending on your supervisor's expertise and your own interests.

How the degree is structured

Australian doctorates are research degrees, not coursework degrees, and this one is no exception. You enrol in a program of supervised research and work through it over three years full time. There is no long list of units to pass. Instead, your progress is tracked through milestones: a confirmation of candidature early on, where you present your proposal and show you can carry the project through; annual progress reviews; and a final thesis examination by external assessors. Some candidates complete a small amount of coursework or training in research methods, ethics or statistics if their panel requires it, and you will need ethics approval before any study involving patients, data or human tissue begins. Credit points are not the main currency here, the thesis is. If you are coming from a coursework master's or an honours degree, you may be eligible for recognition of prior research experience, but that is assessed case by case.

What you actually do

Most of your time goes into the research itself: designing the study, recruiting participants or sourcing data, running analyses, writing papers and drafting chapters. You will work closely with a supervisory panel, usually a principal supervisor and one or two co-supervisors, and you will be part of a research group within the College. Many projects have links to teaching hospitals, clinical services and health organisations in Western Australia and beyond, which is where the work gets its real-world grounding. Notre Dame's medical school has strong connections with the hospital system, so clinical projects often involve access to patient populations and clinician-researchers. You will also be expected to present at seminars and conferences and to publish as you go, publishing during candidature is now common and helps at examination time.

Who it suits

This degree suits someone who already has a strong background in medicine, health science or a related discipline and wants to build a research career. That might be a medical graduate who wants to combine clinical work with research, a scientist moving into medical research, or a health professional, nurse, allied health practitioner, public health officer, who wants to study a problem they see every day. It also suits international candidates looking for a research degree in Australia. If you are an international student, the Student visa lets you work up to 48 hours per fortnight while you study, and on completion you may be eligible for the Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485) post-study work stream. English requirements for international applicants are set out on the university's official pages, with IELTS Academic generally in the 6.0–6.5 range for coursework programs and higher for medicine; the Department of Home Affairs sets its own separate English threshold for the visa. Tuition is published on the CRICOS register under course code 057673K. Check the official course page for entry requirements, supervisor availability and how to apply.

• Academic researcher or lecturer in a university medical or health faculty
• Postdoctoral research fellow in a hospital-based research institute or medical research centre
• Clinical researcher in a teaching hospital or health service
• Research scientist in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology or medical device industry
• Epidemiologist or biostatistician in a government health department or public health unit
• Health policy analyst or research officer in a government agency or non-government health organisation
• Medical affairs or clinical trials specialist in industry
• Senior roles in health service management and clinical governance

Australian industries that hire PhD graduates in medicine and health include universities, medical research institutes, public and private hospitals, state and federal health departments, clinical trials organisations, and the pharmaceutical and life sciences sector. Many graduates combine research with clinical practice or teaching.