In Australia, there are two methods of entry into medicine available. Some people get in straight out of high school, into a 5 or 6 year undergraduate entry program. Others get in after completing a bachelor degree first, and then complete a 4 year graduate entry medicine program. The undergraduate program has been criticized for having less mature applicants in recent times, which has lead to many universities switching from the traditional undergraduate entry in Australia to graduate entry medicine.
Undergraduate medicine gives those who are relatively sure that medicine is the right career path for them the chance to get straight into the degree, having the least amount of time required studying at university before graduating with a medicine degree. It is perhaps the most cost-effective of the options too, both for the student and the university, as the student can practice sooner and the university does not need to use as many years of resources to teach the student. So for people who are sure that medicine is right for them, this path is very good for them.
However, there are quite a number of people who claim that graduate entry medicine is much better than undergraduate entry. The reasons given are often because of higher levels of maturity due to the applicants being older and having a bachelor degree already, and perhaps more life experience too. Also, the graduate entry program has less dropouts and more diversity of applicants.
It may be the case that graduate entry applicants are more mature at the start of the medicine degree. Perhaps a lot of undergraduate entry medicine students may not be perceived mature enough to be interns at the start of the medicine degree, while graduate entry students may be. However, 5 or 6 years is a long time to mature, and it is after those years when undergraduate medicine students will be interns; not at the start of the degree. Furthermore, a range of studies have indicated that age is inversely correlated to grades at medical school. Also, it is more economical to train younger students who can practice for many years compared to older applicants who cannot do so.
Graduate entry applicants may have prior knowledge in areas such as biomedicine that can lead to a deeper understanding of the key concepts compared to undergraduate entry applicants. However, in most universities, there is no such requirement. Unless there is a requirement to have prerequisites, the prior knowledge of some applicants may not help that much, and the course will not use the full potential of the students given their prior knowledge.
It may be the case that graduate entry applicants are more mature and diverse, but at the cost of having less years of practice. The undergraduate entry is perhaps more cost effective for those who want to do medicine out of high school, but has higher dropouts. However, unless there is a need for more knowledgeable graduates, where graduate entry with prerequisites makes sense, there does not seem to be a compelling reason not to have undergraduate entry medicine.
[note: I did try to get into undergraduate entry medicine but my UMAT score was not high enough for an interview. I don't think the UMAT does its job well. However, unless graduate entry programs require prerequisites and train to a higher standard than undergraduate medicine, I don't see a compelling reason for undergraduate medicine not to exist.]
