UQ School of Medicine is partnering with Ochsner Health System in New Orleans, Louisiana, in the delivery of its graduate-entry Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) program. A new UQ MBBS degree has been launched, and admitted American students will study Year One and Year Two of the MBBS program at UQ in Brisbane, and then spend two years in Louisiana at the Ochsner Health System to complete clinical rotations.

Twenty new spots for American citizens or permanent residents have opened for the January, 2009 intake at UQ (Please note, this program is only open to US citizens and US permanent residents). The School of Medicine at UQ has informed us that only those students who have not already accepted an offer to the UQ MBBS program for 2009 are eligible to apply. According to International Pathways, a New York-based corporation, which provides “certain administrative, recruiting, and related services to the University of Queensland and Ochsner Clinic Foundation/Ochsner Community Hospitals”, only U.S. citizens or permanent residents are eligible to participate in this specialized program (visit: http://mededpath.org/internationalpathways/terms_privacy.php)

This MBBS program, with two years of pre-clinical education at UQ in Australia and two years of clinical instruction at Ochsner in Louisiana, is subject to approval by the Australian Medical Council (AMC). UQ has submitted to the AMC an application for program accreditation. Until the AMC completes its review of this new program, UQ will accept students eligible for the program into its four-year MBBS program in Australia. In the event that the AMC does not timely accredit the new program, students who enrol will be expected to complete their four-year medical education at UQ in Brisbane.

The UQ/Ochsner MBBS students will study alongside UQ MBBS students. UQ MBBS students, both Australian and international, have the opportunity to undertake international clinical rotations, including rotations in the U.S.A. at Ochsner.

The UQ/Ochsner initiative aligns with the university’s overall goals of internationalization as well as Head of School, Professor David Wilkinson’s vision to make UQ Australia’s first global medical school. The UQ/Ochsner partnership program is deemed by Professor Wilkinson as “a new model for preparing doctors to work anywhere in the world.”

If you are a Canadian student interested in applying to the medical program at the University of Queensland, please click here.

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