[update] Last public transport concession day tomorrow.

Tomorrow will be the last day I am eligible for public transport concession fares. This is because the card entitling the fares expires on the last day of February, in the year after the issue of the card. Since I was a local student and Biomedicine was an undergraduate course last year, I was eligible. However, since the MD is defined as a masters by coursework degree, it is not eligible for public transport concession travel.

Above is the situation of public transport concession travel in different states, from the CAPA website. Only New South Wales and Victoria deny public transport concession travel to postgraduate and international students. All other states and territories allow them to have concession fares, like local undergraduate students. It's a situation I hope will change in the future in Victoria.

As I said before on my blog, I've listed links to an online petition from CAPA on my links page or on the right of the screen. We can also try sending messages to our local state MP or the Transport Minister in Victoria to advocate for change. Concession fares would enable postgraduate students to spend less time working, worrying and struggling to make ends meet, and therefore be able to focus more on their studies or research.

Gillard 71, Rudd 31

Yesterday, the leadership spill of the ALP occurred. The result was a very comfortable win by Julia Gillard, 71 votes to Kevin Rudd's 31 votes.

This vote highlights the differences in the sentiments in the Labor caucus, the majority of whom prefer Julia Gillard over Kevin Rudd, and the general Australian public, the majority of whom prefer Kevin Rudd over Julia Gillard. It therefore retains this rather strange situation where neither of the major parties is led by a member of parliament in either party who is most preferred (Kevin Rudd from the ALP or Malcolm Turnbull for Liberal), and where the disapproval rate for both the Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader is above their approval rates.

It seems like Kevin Rudd's style of leadership internally and method of working when he was Prime Minister not liked by a lot of the Labor MPs. It's been a while since then though, and it is an open question on whether or not he would make the same mistakes if he was the PM again.

From here on in, Julia Gillard's victory was so strong in this vote that there does not seem like a high chance of a re-challenge. However, if the public sentiment does not improve leading up to the next election, then I think the ALP might think about it again. Alternatively, it might take them losing the next election before they get shocked into taking action. We'll see.

Kevin Rudd resigns as Foreign Minister. Julia Gillard calls for caucus vote for Federal Labor leader.

It's been quite a turbulent few days in national politics. Kevin Rudd was away overseas carrying out his duties as the Foreign Minister, when Simon Crean started the criticism of him as being not a team player. From that, it escalated until 22 February Australian time, when Kevin Rudd announced his resignation as Foreign Minister, saying that it would not be good to continue, as there did not seem to be strong support from the Prime Minister (Julia Gillard), as the Prime Minister did not repudiate any of the attacks on him.

As it stands, the majority of the ministers who have spoken up are in support of the current prime minster. However, Kevin Rudd appears to have the public backing of ministers Martin Ferguson, Chris Bowen and Kim Carr. Of course, it's hard to know where everyone else who didn't comment publicly stands.

As for the public on the other hand, for the past year or so, all the polling seems to suggest that Kevin Rudd is preferred by most people over Julia Gillard as the Prime Minister (and Malcolm Turnbull seems to be preferred over the current opposition leader of Tony Abbott, but that's an aside). Interestingly, I've also noticed that Kevin Rudd has a lot more followers on Twitter than Julia Gillard at the moment. At the time of writing, Kevin Rudd has 1068860 followers, which is more than five times of Julia Gillard's 185968 followers.

This number seems to be inflated very recently however; I suspect due to the recent events. When I checked towards the end of last year, Kevin Rudd had roughly double the followers of Julia Gillard. Either way, having more followers seems to suggest to me that Kevin Rudd might have more people who approve of him on the internet, which is consistent with the news polls. The other possibility of Australians having a very keen interest in Foreign Affairs compared to the Prime Ministership seems unlikely. If anything, under usual circumstances, you would think that more people would be interested in a Prime Minister than a Foreign Minister.

Anyway, it seems like if Kevin Rudd will challenge (which was not said specifically but seems likely from what he has been saying in the media), then we should know the outcome of the caucus vote next Monday. Julia Gillard says that if she loses, then she will retire to the back bench and not challenge again. Kevin Rudd is currently on a plane back to Brisbane and will arrive tomorrow morning. It will be an interesting few days ahead.

GEMSAS 2011 Participant Survey released + GEMSAS 2012 applications open 30 April 2012.

From the GEMSAS website and the Facebook page of the MDHS faculty at the University of Melbourne, there was a link to an online survey for people who applied through GEMSAS in 2011 for 2012 entry into medical school. The survey can be found here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=21tUD5dqvdZtYfDzwTauVA%3D%3D

Let them know if you can suggest any improvements.

I notice also on the GEMSAS website that the applications for medical school for 2013 entry will open on 30 April, 2012. It's interesting for them to set a date of opening, because it was never done in the past with either GMAC or the first iteration of GEMSAS for 2012 entry. This opening date is slightly earlier than it was in previous years when it was about one week into May. However, unless they also release GAMSAT results earlier, letting people apply to GEMSAS earlier probably won't be something that affects most people unless they did the GAMSAT last year and not this year so they only have that score to use (and if that score was OK).

[update] Foundation week is over.

Today marks the end of foundation week for UniMelb medicine. After today, there will be a lot more to learn again.

During foundation week, there were a few interesting experiences to be had. The clinical visit was somewhat interesting to see the doctor interaction with patients, but since I just started medicine, I didn't get to do much.

Some of the rest of the week I didn't find as interesting though, although they were things you'd sort of expect to find during uni orientations about support services and all that. We had to fill in a form for feedback on the foundation week, but although I didn't find certain parts of it interesting, I didn't think that I should make too much comment about it, because those parts would still seem "necessary" for orientation. I really don't know how they can present certain things in a more interesting way either.

So as a result, the comments on my feedback form probably weren't that helpful. I didn't even write my main comments in English. And if they did decide to translate it, it wouldn't be relevant to orientation week at all.

Written:

지금은 소녀시대! 앞으로도 소녀시대! 영원히 소녀시대!

(Right now it's SNSD! From now on it's SNSD! SNSD forever!)

순리에 맞춰 사는 것 넌 길들여져 버렸니? 괜찮니?
암담한 세상이 그댈 주눅들게 만드니? 괜찮니?

(Lyrics from The Boys-SNSD:
Living according to reason Have you gone soft? Are you okay?
Has this gloomy world intimidated you? Are you okay?

Credits: soshified taengbear & minigiglo for lyric translation)

Anyway, I think next week will probably be more interesting. Back to learning more biosciences again! There will also be a dinner next week celebrating 150 years of teaching Medicine at the University of Melbourne; the oldest medical school in Australia.

[update] First day of medical school

Today was my first day doing Medicine at Melbourne Medical School. It was quite a new experience with the medical course, because the format of material given is not the same as undergrad. I had an experience with CSL (case supported learning) today too, which was interesting.

There were quite a few indemnity insurance companies also which were represented today, and I joined one of them because it was free for students. I hope I never need to rely on them though, but mistakes do happen in medicine.

It was nice to see some of the same faces in medicine as from Biomedicine at Melbourne, as well as a considerable number of new faces. This is probably the first time that I've known so many people in my next stage of study studying the same course as me, because not many people from my primary school went to my secondary college, and not many people from my secondary college went to my uni, and only one other person in my year went into the same course as me. The majority or plurality of people from my secondary college who went to uni went to Monash.

There were quite a few lectures today about housekeeping issues. Some of it was interesting, and some less so. Maybe it would be more interesting or engaging if I didn't have to spend all that time learning this professionalism or "what makes a good doctor" stuff to say during the interviews.

What I liked about today was the commitment that the coordinators of CSL at Melbourne seemed to give about upholding a high standard for the basic science given, so that we know what is happening within the patient at a deep level. Because we only have one preclinical year at Melbourne, I was wondering if they would cut out a lot of the stuff. By looking at the notes of the curriculum development before today, it seems like they tried not to cut out stuff, by making anatomy, physiology and biochemistry prerequisites, and integrating some of the remaining biological science teaching to be taught in clinical years, but it still seems like a major task fitting a lot of things that most other graduate entry medical courses fit in two years in just one year.

I hope they've done it well. It would be a shame if Melbourne stopped their long tradition of upholding a rigorous treatment of their medical course and basic sciences, which they started from the beginning of their medical program's existence 150 years ago with a five year undergraduate program instead of a four year undergraduate program which was predominant at the time, and with Melbourne graduates having the highest first sitting pass rates of the Basic Sciences Examination of the RACS (Royal Australasian College of Surgeons) as recently as the mid-2000s.

(For the record, during this period, USyd had the lowest pass rate in that exam due in a large part to their low emphasis of anatomy in their original graduate entry medical program, although this was recently resolved with a trebling of hours devoted to learning gross anatomy after their review in 2007.)

Anyway, I will be having my first clinical visit tomorrow. I'm lucky that my clinical visit for tomorrow isn't too far away, given that some people have clinical visits some distance away at the other side of the city to where they live.

GAMSAT 2012 registrations close today 5 pm AEDT.

As a reminder for anyone who was planning to do the GAMSAT and leaving it until late to register, you have to apply today by 5 pm Australian Eastern Daylight saving Time to avoid any late fees. http://gamsat.acer.edu.au/gamsat-australia

After that, you can apply until 10 February at 5 pm AEST according to the website, provided that you also pay an extra $100 in late fees. I find it interesting that they say 5.00pm AEST (Australian Eastern Standard Time) instead of AEDT for late applications. I wonder if it is a mistake on the GAMSAT website. That said, if you want to apply for the GAMSAT, you should complete it no later than 5 pm AEDT today to avoid any late fees anyway.

All the best for your preparation if you are planning to sit the GAMSAT.


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