NOW AVAILABLE - RESEARCH PROJECTS FOR HONOURS AND PHD STUDENTS
Medical and Biomedical Education is a significant focus of the department. This includes undergraduate teaching, University undergraduate and postgraduate courses including Bachelor of Science Honours (B Sc Hons) and Research higher degrees (RHD) such as Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Doctor of Medicine (MD), Master of Science (MSc) and Master of Surgery (MSurg). Students undertaking courses within the Department originate from both local and international institutions. We also have an active Advanced Medical Studies (AMS) research program for medical students and postgraduate teaching for training surgeons as part of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.
ENVIRONMENT
The Department of Surgery at Austin Health presents a unique environment where basic sciences and clinical medicine intersect. This provides excellent opportunities for basic science, clinical and translational research. The presence of international RHD students and post-doctoral fellows from both the science and surgical backgrounds further enriches the environment. The opportunity to participate in national and international collaborative research adds greatly to the experience.
SUPERVISION
Each student is assigned at least two supervisors from amongst the full time scientists and academic surgical staff. Formal meetings between supervisors and students are scheduled each week and all supervisors are easily approachable on a daily basis. Specific meetings for each of the three research groups occur each week where students and staff meet together as a group. In addition weekly laboratory meetings, student presentations and lecture series where all students and staff participate provide further avenues for discussion and problem solving.
FACILITIES
The Department in particular and Austin Health in general provide students with superb facilities and close supervision by dedicated staff members. Each student is provided with a work station in one of the student offices where high speed internet access is provided through the University of Melbourne network along with IT support for student laptop computers. All software applications available to students at the Parkville campus are also available in the department.
All essential laboratory facilities are provided on site. This includes facilities for animal surgery, animal holding and breeding, molecular biology, HPLC, Hyperbaric oxygen therapy, Immunohistochemistry, Tissue culture and In vivo confocal imaging.
OUTCOMES
The ultimate quality and character of any research program is reflected in the achievements of the participants. Although the Honours program is relatively new, the majority of our previous students have achieved excellent scores withthe majority of students achieving first class Honours degrees and proceeding onto RHD courses.
Our well established PhD program has a 100% completion rate.
SCHOLARSHIPS
Students who have completed Honours in our department and have enrolled in doctoral courses have been very successful in receiving scholarships, in particular APA, NHMRC and Australian Rotary scholarships. Scholarships for PhD students are also available through the Bladin Scholarship fund. RHD students are encouraged and supported to attend both national and international conferences. This provides opportunities to present their work as well as network with their peers. A travel bursary supports travel to such conferences for selected students.