Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery

The Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery at the University of Tasmania is a five-year undergraduate medical degree. It runs as a single integrated programme, so you do not graduate with one degree and then the other. You finish with both awards. The degree is registered on CRICOS (course code 056049J), which means it is approved for international students to study in Australia on a Student visa.

How the course is structured

The five years are split into two broad phases. The early years are campus-based, covering biomedical sciences, population health, clinical skills and professional practice. You learn anatomy, physiology, pathology, pharmacology and the social side of medicine. Later years are clinical. You rotate through hospital and community placements in medicine, surgery, paediatrics, obstetrics and gynaecology, psychiatry and general practice. The University of Tasmania has strong links to the Royal Hobart Hospital and the Launceston General Hospital, plus rural clinical schools and community practices around the state. The course uses units of study with credit points, and you need to pass each year before moving to the next. Assessment mixes written exams, clinical exams, assignments and supervisor reports from placements.

Medicine is a professional degree, so work-integrated learning is not an add-on, it is the core of the later years. You spend significant time in clinical environments, learning from doctors, nurses and allied health staff while caring for real patients under supervision. The rural and regional settings give you exposure to a different kind of practice from a big-city teaching hospital. That matters in Tasmania, where a lot of care happens outside the major centres.

Skills you build

You graduate able to take a history, examine a patient, reason through a diagnosis, order and interpret tests, and communicate clearly with patients and colleagues. You also learn how to work in a team, manage your own learning, and understand the legal and ethical framework of Australian medical practice. The degree prepares you for internship, the first year of supervised practice after graduation, which you need before you can register as a doctor.

Who this suits

This course suits school leavers and graduates who want to practise medicine in Australia. It is long, demanding and involves a lot of science, but also a lot of human contact. You need to be comfortable with blood, illness, death and difficult conversations. If you are an international student, check the English language requirement carefully. Medicine sits in the higher band, IELTS Academic 7.0–7.5 overall or equivalent, and the Department of Home Affairs also sets its own English threshold for the Student visa. Tuition is published on the CRICOS register. For entry requirements, application deadlines and the exact English scores accepted, go to the official University of Tasmania page.

Graduates of this degree typically go on to work as doctors in the Australian health system. The first step after graduation is an internship at a hospital, which leads to general registration. From there, doctors choose a specialty and train further.

• Intern (first-year doctor) in public and private hospitals
• Resident medical officer
• Registrar in a specialty training programme
• General practitioner (after further training)
• Specialist physician or surgeon (after further training)
• Psychiatrist, paediatrician, obstetrician or other specialist
• Public health or medical research roles
• Hospital and health service administration

Australian employers include state and territory health departments, public hospitals, private hospital groups, general practices, community health organisations, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health services, and medical research institutes. International graduates may be eligible for the Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485) post-study work stream, which allows you to stay and work after you finish. While you study, your visa lets you work up to 48 hours per fortnight during term. Always check the current rules with the Department of Home Affairs.