Extended Rural Cohort
Guaranteed training placements in rural & regional Victoria
The Extended Rural Cohort is a cohort of direct entry Monash University medical students within the Bachelor of Medical Science and Doctor of Medicine (MD). This program allows you to spend most of your clinical training years in rural and regional Victoria.
As an Extended Rural Cohort student, you'll spend your first two years in Clayton with other medical students. For the next two years of clinical training, you are then guaranteed a place in hospitals and community-based practices in rural and regional Victoria in the north-west of the state or in Gippsland. Your final clinical training year consists of two semesters, comprised of a series of six-week rotations, which you can choose to do in a regional hospital and a metropolitan hospital or spend the entire year in a regional hospital.
Throughout the course, you study the same curriculum as metropolitan-based students and have great hands-on training opportunities with dedicated tutors, clinicians and experienced educators.
Year levels
Your first two years will be at the Monash Clayton campus.
The next two and a half years of your three years of clinical training are completed in rural and regional hospitals and community-based practices. These are in regional and rural north-west Victoria. During your final clinical training year, which involves a series of six-week placements, you can choose to undertake 18 weeks in metropolitan hospitals.
Explore each year of the Extended rural cohort following your first two years in Clayton, along with stories from some of our students below:
Applying for the Extended Rural Cohort
Domestic students are eligible to apply. You are a domestic student if you are:
- an Australian citizen (including dual citizens), or
- a New Zealand citizen (including dual citizens), or
- an Australian permanent resident, or
- a holder of an Australian permanent humanitarian visa.
The Extended Rural Cohort within the Monash MD course has its own VTAC code and you must nominate this code to be considered for a place in this cohort. See the medicine course website for details on eligibility and how to apply.
Eligible applicants: Domestic students (see definition above)
Places available: 30 (Commonwealth Supported Places)
Duration of course: five years full-time
For further information about the Extended Rural Cohort stream please contact the Monash Rural Health education team at rural.health@monash.edu
Boost your chances of entry into medicine
If you have a rural background or identify as an Australian Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Island person, you can boost your chances of a place in medicine by submitting additional information when you apply.
The University has established two special entry schemes - the Dean's Rural List and Dean's Indigenous List - as part of its commitment to providing access to students from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and students from rural backgrounds. Find out more about how you apply.
Sign up to the Boost your Chances newsletter to give you information on how you can boost your chances of getting into medicine at Monash.
Frequently asked questions
Q. Do ERC students have to do all their clinical placements in rural or regional teaching hospitals?
A. ERC students undertake the majority of their three clinical training years at hospitals and health services in regional and rural Victoria, with a final year semester (18 weeks) in a metropolitan Melbourne, should students wish to preference this model.
Q. Can ERC students choose where they go for clinical placements and when do they submit preferences?
A. During second semester of Years 2, 3 and 4 all ERC students are provided with information regarding ERC locations. Students nominate preferences for Year 3 and 4 clinical placements and we take their preferences into consideration in allocating student placements. We try and give students opportunities to spend time at a regional hospital, as well as one of the rural community practices during Year 4. Student preferences are taken into account when allocating students to placement sites, however, students are not guaranteed to be placed at one of their preferred locations. Students are advised of their provisional placement details by mid-October and confirmed once end-of-year assessment results are finalised in December.
Q. Do ERC students have to come from a rural background?
A. The ERC is open to students from rural or urban backgrounds. If you do come from a regional or rural background, be sure to find out about the Dean’s Rural List – a special entry scheme that can help you gain entry into the Monash medicine course.
Q. Are there any return of service obligations as an ERC student once I graduate?
A. No. ERC students apply for a Commonwealth Supported Place (CSP) and undertake most of their undergraduate clinical training in rural and regional Victoria. If you accept an ERC place, you will be asked to sign a Statement of Understanding with the University stating that you will spend the equivalent of five clinical semesters (Year 3, Year 4 and 18 weeks in Year 5) in rural and regional Victoria.
Q. Are there any differences with examinations?
A. ERC students sit the same exams as metropolitan based students.
Q. Do ERC students need a car or is there transport available?
A. We recommend that all ERC students have their own reliable transport. Regional and rural sites vary with travel requirements and distances related to learning activities.
Q. Where do students live while on placement?
A. When you undertake a one-week placement in Year 2 we organise and pay for your accommodation. When on regional or rural placement during the clinical training years (Years 3-5), students live in Monash subsidised, self-catered accommodation. The accommodation is either college-style or share houses/units close to the placement site. The weekly rental fee covers the cost of fully furnished accommodation, high speed Wi-Fi, utilities, property and garden maintenance.
Q. How can I find out more about life as an ERC student?
A. We hold information events at Open Day and we can also help connect you to current ERC students. Contact Monash Rural Health’s Rural Education Program Manager at rural.health@monash.edu
Q. Would spending time rurally be a disadvantage in gaining internship selection at my preferred location?
A. The majority of ERC students receive their first preference for internship location.
Q. I am a rural origin and ERC student. Can I preference to return to my hometown for placements?
A. At times, rural origin students are keen to return to their hometown for rural placements. Consideration will be given to rural origin (DRL) students who come from a rural and who want to return to that region, should they preference in this way. Being a DRL student, and preferencing your local region does not guarantee you a placement there, but it does improve your chances of being allocated to that location.