Petition is successful with 1,541 signatures
To: UniMelb
MDHS: Recognise our 2020 Results
This campaign has ended.
The University has made some changes to WAM calculations, effectively cutting a hole in the safety net for students applying for programs offered by the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences next year. Students are stuck with their 2019 WAMs, and will not be able to include their 2020 WAM even where it has improved.
This decision disadvantages many students who want to maximise their chances of a place into medicine, dentistry or optometry courses.
Sign our petition to demand that the University reconsider their stance and develop an approach which does not disadvantage any student.
Why is this important?
Grades received in the second and third years of an Undergraduate degree are normally given double weighting meaning that students currently completing third year subjects are denied the opportunity make improvements to their WAM.
Honours degrees must be completed by Semester One to be included in WAM calculations when applying for Medicine, while an ongoing Honours degree counted towards Optometry or Dentistry. As a result of the changes to WAM calculation, Honours at any stage of completion will not be included, for any of the three degrees. Additionally, changes to Honours projects mean that they do not attract sufficient credit points to be included in the University’s broader approach to WAM.
Overall, these changes are manifestly unfair and disadvantage students who are able to improve their competitiveness for MDHS applications this month. The University made this decision in the absence of student representatives and has not provided a rationale for how this change benefits students, or why this decision was necessary. It is astonishing that the University of Melbourne has decided to adopt this model given that the same outcomes could have been achieved for students whose results have suffered this semester, by applying the WAM changes announced only a short time ago.
Other Australian medical schools have allowed students to receive the benefits of good results in 2020, or have changed their approach since this announcement was made. We call on the University of Melbourne to rescind its decision to ensure WAMs that improve in 2020 can be used.