The University of Auckland Medicine course

The curriculum spirals through five domains: Applied Science for Medicine, Clinical and Communication Skills, Personal and Professional Skills, Hauora Māori and Population Health. The same strands return in each phase at greater depth. The AMC's 2026 report describes it as integrated across subjects within a year and from one year to the next. It says the basic structure has been broadly the same since 2013.

In Phase 1 most teaching is grouped into modules by body system. Clinical scenarios tie lectures and labs to real presentations. The faculty keeps a bank of 192 mapped case studies, recently adding scenarios on menopause, family violence and gender-affirming care. Year 3 adds problem-solving sessions. Clinical pharmacology runs through the course, starting from an early list of essential medicines.

In the clinical years you learn on attachments, with four campus teaching weeks in Year 4 and three in Year 5. Responsibility grows until Year 6, which the AMC describes as an apprenticeship within clinical teams. At its 2025 visit, some students at regional sites reported fewer structured tutorials than in Auckland, though the AMC noted that smaller sites often give more hands-on experience.

Year 2 is a full-time, 120-point course with a weekly timetable, and the catalogue expects about 40 hours of work a week. Lectures are recorded, but labs, tutorials and clinical skills sessions must be attended, and module tests are sat on campus. In Year 3 expect at least 30 hours a week on the main course, plus about 3 hours of Medical Humanities lectures and the reading that goes with them.

Year 2 runs on its own calendar. In 2026 it began on 23 February, a week before the University's Semester One, and ended on 16 November. It also had three compulsory progress tests, written tests that every year group sits three times a year. Two of them, on 17 April and 17 July, fell in University breaks; the third was on 27 October.

The clinical years start in January: in 2026, Year 6 began on 12 January, Year 5 on 19 January and Year 4 on 26 January. Years 4 and 5 mean 35 to 45 hours a week in clinical settings. In Year 6 you work weekdays from about 8am to 4pm, with one long day a week until 10pm on most attachments, one weekend per attachment and, on some, nights.

Anatomy is taught within the body-system modules of Years 2 and 3, alongside physiology, pathology and medical imaging. The Department of Anatomy and Medical Imaging lectures in four Year 2 modules: respiratory, digestive, cardiovascular and genitourinary. In Year 3 it teaches in the Nervous System and Special Senses module, which it coordinates, and in Reproduction and Endocrinology. It also runs the Radiology Weeks.

Donated bodies are part of this teaching. Bodies given through the Human Body Bequest Programme, which the department has run since 1968, are used to teach medical students and other health professionals, under the Human Tissue Act 2008. The faculty describes its Human Anatomy Laboratory as a place to learn anatomy through cadaver-based dissection, used by medical and science students, surgeons and researchers.

Before working with donated bodies, second-year students take part in a whakanoa, a spiritual clearing ceremony. Kaumātua (elders) lead karakia (prayers) and waiata (songs) in te reo Māori to honour the donors and lift tapu, the sacred restrictions that tikanga Māori (Māori custom) places on the body. The University reported that more than 340 second-years took part in February 2025. The ceremony began in the 1990s for Māori students and is now held every year for all medical students.

You first practise clinical skills in Year 2, examining classmates and simulated patients, including trained actors, in controlled settings. Patients also take part in some clinical lectures. The AMC notes that you must show competence in these sessions before moving on to real patients. The general practice department says Year 2 also includes one observational visit to a practice.

Year 3 adds ward-based learning with real or simulated patients, and an OSCE (objective structured clinical examination), where you rotate through timed stations, each testing one task.

From Year 4 you are on full-time attachments. The AMC commended one community placement, at Turuki Health in Māngere, a Kaupapa Māori (Māori-led) provider. There students join community initiatives and see consultations in te reo Māori, Samoan and other languages.

Auckland uses programmatic assessment: instead of resting on one big exam, the course gathers many lower-stakes results over time. A Board of Examiners for each phase reviews every student's results twice a year and judges progress in each of the five domains. Each Part must be passed before you move on, and failing the same Part twice ends your enrolment in the degree.

Progress tests run from Year 2 to Year 6. Every year group sits the same test, with questions built on clinical scenarios, so you can watch your knowledge grow. An online dashboard compares your results with your cohort, though students told the AMC in 2025 that they wanted more detailed individual feedback.

Clinical skills are tested in OSCEs and through workplace-based assessment on attachments. That includes Mini-CEX observations, where a clinician watches you with a patient and gives feedback, plus electronic supervisor reports covering professionalism and Hauora Māori, and logbooks. Year 6 adds long case assessments, where you assess one patient in depth, with feedback straight afterwards.

If you fail one or more components in Years 2 to 5, the examiners can withhold your result until you complete extra work or another exam. If the weakness is too serious for that, you fail the Part. In Year 6 they can require extra time in a department, which delays graduation. Students told the AMC in 2025 that feedback was sometimes months late and varied between sites.

• Year 2 (MBCHB 221): end-of-module tests 57 per cent, progress tests 15, professional and clinical essays, journals and participation 15, labs and integrated learning activities 10, Māori health activities 3.
• Year 3 (MBCHB 321): end-of-module tests 47 per cent, progress tests 32, labs and coursework 12, OSCE 9. Medical Humanities: research essay 35, critical review 30, seminar 25, participation and attendance 10.
• Year 4: progress tests, clinical attachments, clinical and communication skills observations, a personal and professional skills portfolio and a Hauora Māori assessment, 20 per cent each.
• Year 5: progress tests carry all of the percentage weighting; the other components are listed without a weighting.
• Year 6: you must pass every assessment, including progress tests, supervisor reports, clinical skills assessments, a case report, a project, the elective report and interview, and a clinical imaging test.

In Years 4 to 6 you have year-long placements at one of eight upper North Island hospitals, plus short general practice placements. Every student must spend at least one full clinical year outside Auckland; if too few volunteer to go, a binding ballot decides, and once placed you cannot swap. Students can choose a cohort location each year, but some told the AMC in 2025 that missing out on a preferred site added costs.

The Medical Programme Directorate names eight clinical sites: Northland, Waitematā, Auckland City, South Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Rotorua/Lakes and Taranaki. The faculty has agreements with the eight main districts of Te Whatu Ora (Health New Zealand), which runs the public hospitals. South Auckland, Waitematā, Waikato and Bay of Plenty are led by a Clinical Campus Dean, the others by an academic coordinator.

In Phase 1 the Rural Stream is open to Regional Rural Admission Scheme (RRAS) students and anyone else interested in rural medicine. It offers early clinical exposure in rural hospitals, tutorials, a dedicated pastoral staff member and support from past Rural Stream students. At the end of Year 3 you can apply for a limited place in its Phase 2 cohort, which gives priority for rural placements.

Pūkawakawa, in Northland, is one of several year-long regional-rural cohorts in Year 5. The University's 2027 prospectus lists four such options, and the AMC's 2026 report also names regional-rural programmes in Waikato, Lakes and Whakatāne. Pūkawakawa students spend most of the year in regional-rural Northland, which the Year 5 catalogue entry allows. In January 2025, Health NZ Te Tai Tokerau said the programme, a partnership begun in 2007, had 24 students, each placed at Whangārei Hospital and a rural Northland hospital.

The Rural Medical Immersion Programme began in 2025, with about a dozen Year 5 students living in groups of three in Wellsford, Thames, Te Kūiti and Hāwera; Taupō joins in 2027. Students work in rural general practices and hospitals, mentored by community health providers and visiting specialists, with two residentials a year in Auckland. There are no extra assessments, but you spread the usual ones across the year.

Help with costs varies. At the AMC's 2025 visit, students placed away from home received $25 a night towards accommodation and a fuel allowance. Rural Medical Immersion students have subsidised or provided housing, the interprofessional programme offers free houses, and some of the Waikato, Lakes and Whakatāne programmes fund accommodation. An accreditation condition requires a consistent approach to placement accommodation by 2028.

The Year 5 selective is a placement you choose to pursue an interest, though the school can direct a student's selective towards remediation. MBChB students cannot take an exchange semester, so the selective and the Year 6 elective are when you can study overseas. Rural Medical Immersion students can take a rural selective in their region: a rural hospital, rural emergency medicine with the Hato Hone St John ambulance service and retrieval helicopter services, or rural general practice.

Sources differ on the Year 6 elective. The AMC's 2026 report describes an eight-week elective of your choice, and a 2024 University story followed one student through eight weeks in two hospitals in Malawi. The Year 6 catalogue entry describes an optional 10-week block for the elective or a substantial research project. Either way, you write an elective report and have an interview about it.

The paediatrics department offers Year 6 research elective modules, where students work with academic staff on projects that can lead to presentations and publications. The University provides free travel insurance for registered overseas selectives and electives.

Intercalating means pausing your degree to complete another. At Auckland it is optional: after Year 3 you can defer the clinical years to take the Bachelor of Medical Science (Honours), BMedSc(Hons), then return and graduate with both. The AMC describes it as a deferred year taken between Years 3 and 6.

The BMedSc(Hons) is a 120-point research degree based at Grafton. You either complete a 90-point supervised research project with 30 points of taught courses, in areas such as clinical education, digital health or Māori health, or write a 120-point thesis. It takes a year full time or up to two years part time.

You need at least a B average in Part III (Year 3), meaning a grade point average of 5.0 or more. You also need a confirmed supervisor and topic, and the Dean's approval. MBChB students taking it can be considered for University postgraduate scholarships, including Māori and Pacific ones.

Grafton Campus covers 2.75 hectares on Park Road, opposite Auckland City Hospital. Set up for the School of Medicine in 1968, it holds the Philson Library, the specialist medical library, plus a Student Hub, an Information Commons and study spaces. The AMC noted in 2025 that space at Grafton is already tight as the intake grows.

The Clinical Skills Centre, on the ground floor of Building 502, has a learning space, a ward room and a seminar room. The Simulation Centre for Patient Safety, run by the Department of Anaesthesiology, uses high-fidelity simulators and a fully equipped operating room. It teaches cannulation, blood taking, airway skills, resuscitation and team scenarios. The Advanced Clinical Skills Centre teaches procedural skills within the core curriculum.

Whakaaro Pai, the Auckland Medical Research Foundation (AMRF) Medical Sciences Learning Centre, combines the school's anatomy and pathology museums. It holds hundreds of anatomical models, over 1,100 pathology specimens and an online database of pathology and radiology images with clinical descriptions. Visits are booked and start with a staff induction.

The AMC found the clinical sites it visited well set up, with internet, computers, libraries, meeting spaces and areas to prepare meals.

Support starts in Year 2, when the whole class is at Grafton, with wellbeing events and SAFE-DRS, a wellbeing curriculum that covers the doctor as patient and colleague. The Directors of Medical Student Affairs arrange adjustments and particular support. Students with a disability meet them in their first year, and there is a Disabled Students Support Space at Grafton.

Māori and Pacific students can draw on the student support advisors of the Māori and Pasifika Admissions Scheme (MAPAS), whom the AMC commended, and on MAPAS House on the main campus. Tuākana offers Māori and Pacific students topic tutorials, one-on-one sessions and test preparation.

On placement, site staff and coordinators are the first point of contact. Some sites have Clinical Medical Education Fellows, who give extra clinical skills teaching and meet students with unsatisfactory progress test results. Each site offers counselling through an Employee Assistance Programme. In Years 4 to 6, a six-monthly anonymous survey called HOTSPOTS flags rotations where students report bullying, harassment or discrimination.

Year 4 includes bystander training and a Health and Wellbeing Day. From your first semester you need professional indemnity cover through the Medical Protection Society or a similar provider, free for students. The Grassroots Rural Health Club runs activities for students interested in rural health.