Updated standards for the assessment of specialist international medical graduates

27 Aug 2020

The Medical Board of Australia has released updated standards for the assessment of specialist international medical graduates to come into effect from 1 January 2021.

The updated Standards for specialist medical college assessment of specialist international medical graduates will replace the current Good practice guidelines for the specialist international medical graduate assessment process.

The revised standards guide how specialist medical colleges assess international medical graduates.

The updated standards aim to improve transparency and procedural fairness and make the requirements of the assessment clearer. They do not significantly change the approach to the assessment of specialist international medical graduates.

Differences include:

• rewording and reordering to make requirements clearer
• for a specialist recognition assessment, colleges will provide applicants with a summary highlighting any gaps between their application and college requirements, and an opportunity to make corrections to any errors in their information, before the college makes an interim assessment decision
• introducing a mandatory minimum period of supervised practice for specialist international medical graduates assessed as substantially comparable or partially comparable.

The update reflects the recommendations made by Deloitte Access Economics’ external review of the performance of the specialist medical colleges in the assessment of specialist international medical graduates. Deloitte found that the colleges find the current Good practice guidelines for the specialist international medical graduate assessment process (the Good practice guidelines) helpful and informative. However, the colleges requested more guidance and clarity about the Board’s requirements in relation to the assessment process.

Following a review of the Good practice guidelines including public consultation the Board has released the updated standards.

The updated standards are on the Board’s IMG specialist pathway page.