State and federal governments are urgently assessing the national impact of controversial changes to the Victorian internship selection process which put international students ahead of hundreds of Australian students in the tussle for positions.
Under changes effective immediately, international students who studied in Victoria will be given priority for a Victorian internship over Australian residents who studied interstate.
Previously, both groups went into the same pool. First priority will still go to Australian residents who studied in Victoria.
The change, which was announced on the same day that applications for internships closed on 8 June, has been criticised by the Australian Medical Students’ Association (AMSA).
AMSA has raised particular concerns for students in Tasmania, where the hospital system cannot provide enough internships for students, leaving 30% to seek posts in Victoria.
A spokesman for Federal Health Minister Tanya Plibersek said officials from state and federal health departments had discussed the Victorian shake-up and would “assess the impact of this change on the availability and provision of internships across Australia”.
He stressed that all Australian students in Commonwealth-supported places were guaranteed an internship, under an agreement by state and territory governments.
However the same is not true for international full-fee paying students.
“The Australian Health Ministers' Advisory Committee has commissioned urgent work to quantify the extent of any potential shortfall in internships for international full fee paying students and options to address any shortfall,” the spokesman said.
James Churchill, president of AMSA said the association had lobbied hard for all medical students, including international students, to be granted an internship in Australia.
However he said the last-minute timing of the change to Victoria’s selection process was “very poor”.
“Many interstate students have contacted us very upset with these changes, after spending hours on internship applications. It is now too late for them to apply for other states,” he said.
But some doctors have defended the Victorian policy.
Dr Jon Noonan, who was president of the Sydney University Medical Society in 2010 and studied under a Commonwealth-supported place told Australian Doctor:
“International students have been one of the most discriminated against groups for years in terms of intern placements and this [change in Victoria] at least gives them a reasonable chance of being placed in the state they trained in, because there is zero chance of being placed in another state.”
Nationally, there are 495 more graduating students than there are internship places for next year.
Clair McCartney, president of the Tasmanian University Medical Students’ Society yesterday suggested the change had been brought about by pressure from the universities.
“International students bring in a huge proportion of the funding for medical schools,” she said.
But Professor Geoff McColl, director of the medical education unit in the University of Melbourne medical school said: “The University of Melbourne has not put the Victorian Health Department under any pressure to accept our students who are in international places.”
“We have discussed domestic fee paying students and their requirement for internships but there is no particular discussion related to international students ... I have to say that personally, I was somewhat surprised by the new three-tier system.”
On Monday Australian Doctor was told that ACT Government Health had implemented the same system as Victoria.
However a spokesman for the ACT Health Directorate denied this on Tuesday.
She said priority would first go to ACT students, then to interstate students who completed their final year of High school in the ACT, and then to other graduates.
Australian Doctor is waiting to hear back from Western Australia about whether it will adopt the Victorian policy.