Melbourne Uni pushes forward with graduate entry

A report in The Age this morning, "University lobbies on full fees" notes that The University of Melbourne Council is set to approve graduate entry arrangements at its meeting tonight.

Apparently, the paper being considered at this meeting notes that "it is critical to persuade the Government to lift the limit on the number of Australian students that can pay full fees - currently capped at 35% - for the 'Melbourne Model' to succeed."

The plan is to reduce the number of undergraduate degrees offered from 96 to six, one of which is a Bioscience degree.

While The Age article does not mention dentistry, the University's website does. This is surprising as the ADAVB was advised that the model would not be applied to the dental degree without further consultation. The University makes it clear that the Bioscience degree will lead to graduate school opportunities in "a variety of professional areas such as ... Dentistry". The following extract refers:

Professional career pathways
Graduates of the Bachelor of Bioscience will have a wide variety of career pathways available to them. They may consider a career in a health-related profession such as medicine, dentistry, physiotherapy, nursing, behavioural science, optometry, biomedical engineering or population health. They may also consider continuing specialist research as a professional scientist in one of the bioscience fields of study described above. Further opportunities for graduates would exist for professional degrees in complementary disciplines such as veterinary science.

Graduate School opportunities
Graduates of the Bachelor of Bioscience will have the opportunity to apply for further study in a variety of professional areas such as Law and health-related degrees including Medicine, Dentistry, Physiotherapy, Nursing, Optometry, Behavioural Science, Veterinary Science, Population Health and Biomedical Engineering. Graduates will also be well qualified to commence specialist research qualifications (Masters and PhD) in Bioscience.

A two-page pamphlet about this degree is also available.

In another section of the University website, in a section titled Continuing degrees from 2008, the BDSc and BOH degrees appear to remain undergraduate courses.

The ADAVB will seek clarification of the implications of these developments for the future of dental training in Victoria and advise further.