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One of the biggest developments of the New Courses structure to be introduced at UWA in 2012 is that some professional qualifications, which were previously available to study as undergraduate degrees, will now be delivered at postgraduate level.  This means that in order to gain entry into these professional qualifications/degrees, students will now need to have completed at least one three-year Bachelor degree, along with other degree-specific prerequisites.

It is important to understand that there are significant differences in the entry pathways and admission requirements for those professional postgraduate degrees which have a tightly-restricted quota of places for students - such as Law, Medicine and Dentistry - and those which do not have the same limitations, such as Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Engineering (amongst others).

For the first group - Law, Medicine and Dentistry - admission into the course will be based on a competitive selection process, and while there may be specific admission requirements for each degree, the completion of these alone will not guarantee entry into the degree. Rather, as with the previous undergraduate model, applicants will compete with one another for a place, and selection will be based on how each applicant ranks in relation to their peers.

While the majority of these places will be competed for on the basis of academic performance throughout the applicant's undergraduate degree, along with other degree-specific entry requirements (such as the aptitude test and interview for Medicine and Dentistry), there will also be a small number of places reserved for high-achieving school leavers, contingent on them taking up one of the five undergraduate degrees at UWA, and maintaining a consistently high standard of achievement - a GPA of 5.5 - throughout this first degree. These reserved places are known as ‘ assured pathways ', and the number of these, along with the admission requirements for each, are as follows:

Doctor of Medicine (Medicine): There will be 42 places reserved for high-achieving school-leavers, 31 places for Rural school-leavers, and 12 places for those within the Outer-Metropolitan programme. For high-achieving school-leavers the minimum ATAR will be 99; for Rural and Outer Metropolitan school-leavers the minimum ATAR will be 96. Due to the competitive nature of the selection process, achieving the minimum ATAR is not a guarantee of entry into one of the assured pathways. The selection process will be based on performance in the UMAT aptitude test, a structured interview, and the applicant's ATAR score.

Doctor of Dental Medicine (Dentistry):  There will be 5 places reserved for high-achieving school-leavers, 3 places for Rural school-leavers, and 3 places for those within the Outer-Metropolitan programme. The minimum ATAR scores will be the same as those for the Doctor of Medicine, above. The selection process will be based on performance in the UMAT aptitude test, a structured interview, and the applicant's ATAR score.

Juris Doctor (Law): There will be 100 places reserved for school-leavers, with no further sub-quotas. The minimum ATAR for consideration will be 98; though the final cutoff score may be higher and will be determined by when the reserved places are filled.   The selection process will be based entirely on the applicant's ATAR score.

For all of the above professional postgraduate degrees, the assured pathways will be contingent on the students taking up one of the five undergraduate degrees at UWA and maintaining a consistently high level of achievement - a GPA of 5.5 (equivalent to a subject average of around 65%) - throughout this first degree.   Students proceeding to the Doctor of Dental Medicine course will also be required to satisfy tests of manual dexterity and spatial awareness in order to take up their reserved place.

For the second group of professional postgraduate degrees, such as Architecture,  Landscape Architecture and Engineering, all applicants who have attained the relevant undergraduate qualifications (including satisfactory completion of the required major/s) will be able to proceed into the relevant postgraduate course.