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NHMRC funding of RACP Fellows and Advanced Trainee Doctoral Studies
Abstract:
Background: The National Health & Medical Research Council (NHMRC) provides scholarships to support doctoral studies for health researchers including medical practitioners.
Aims/Objectives, This study explores the characteristics of RACP members who are awarded these scholarships between the years 2005 and 2009.
Methods: From publically available NHMRC reports, the AHPRA website, and the Medical Directory of Australia medical practitioner recipients of NHMRC postgraduate scholarships were identified. Their year and university of primary medical qualification and medical specialty / subspecialty were generally available. University library thesis collections as at December 2012 were utilised to confirm completion of studies. The PubMed version of Medline database was searched to identify the number and earliest publication.
Findings: In the period 1717 scholarships were awarded. 291 of these went to registered medical practitioners of whom 195 were Fellows or Advanced Trainees of the RACP. 101 of these RACP scholars had a thesis in a library catalogue. 25% of the 1995 scholarship holders did not appear to have completed.
It took a median of 5 years since the initial application or 11 years since primary medical qualification to complete the doctoral thesis.
One university, Melbourne, was disproportionately represented in providing the initial medical qualification or the candidature enrollment. The subspecialties of cardiology, infectious diseases and nephrology were also over represented.
Only five of those awarded scholarships have a practice address outside a capital city and most appear to be concentrated in close proximity to major inner city teaching hospitals.
Few scholars had published prior to the scholarship award. The median number of Medline recorded journal articles authored was 5 (Range 0-56)
Conclusions: Certain regions and disciplines are underrepresented in NHMRC scholarship awards. Around a quarter of candidates do not complete their studies. This has implications for academic development and for the RACP Research Foundation.
