Strategy and Initiatives

MDHS Indigenous Postdoctoral Fellowship

The MDHS Indigenous Postdoctoral Fellowship aims to support the next generation of Indigenous academics. This three-year Fellowship offers mentorship and career development for MDHS PhD graduates and candidates and supports them to pursue research goals.

Find out more about the initiative and how to apply here.

Indigenous Development Publication

The Sharing Knowledge and Future Leaders – Indigenous Development publication outlines our Faculty's efforts to make a sustained contribution to better health, education and living standards for Indigenous Australians.

Sharing Knowledge and Future Leaders – Indigenous Development (PDF)

A Uniquely Australian Faculty Report

A Uniquely Australian Faculty outlines some of the many ways we have worked and continue to work towards reconciliation across the Faculty: from our employment practices to our teaching programs, from our research to our community engagement.

A Uniquely Australian Faculty – Indigenous Health and Development as the Cornerstone (PDF)

Indigenous Development Action Plan

Our Indigenous students, teachers and researchers are an asset to this Faculty, adding to our great diversity of expertise and knowledge. Indigenous people bring with them a wealth of experience and skills that enrich the perspectives offered by the Faculty, and enhance the impact of our work on the health of Indigenous communities.

Starting a Research Career

After completing her PhD in Microbiology and Immunology at the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences in 2007, Dr Misty Jenkins became the first Indigenous Australian to attend either Oxford or Cambridge University. She has since been mentored by Nobel-prize winning immunologist Professor Peter Doherty, and in 2011 commenced working with Professor Joe Trapani as a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) postdoctoral fellow in the Cancer Cell Death laboratory at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne. In 2013, Dr Jenkins was awarded a prestigious L'Oreal Australia and New Zealand for Women in Science Fellowship.

Ngurra-Jarraddjak (Healthy) Indigenous Graduate Study Options Program

The University of Melbourne and Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences have developed an undergraduate ‘gateway’ program to prepare Indigenous students for graduate health sciences degrees.

The Ngurra-Jarraddjak (Healthy) Indigenous Graduate Study Options Program is a national week-long residential program that gives undergraduate students exposure to different health research institutions, meet Indigenous health professionals, discover pathways into different health careers and the opportunity to meet faculty staff and alumni. The program envisages the knowledge given to the students during the week will increase future health graduate enrolments.

Objectives

  • To showcase Melbourne as a realistic destination of choice for Indigenous health and biomedical science aspirants.
  • To provide training in laboratory skills, relevant to health and biomedical sciences.
  • To establish mentor relationships for participants.
  • To operate as a recruitment strategy for Indigenous students into graduate coursework within the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences.

Costs

Flights, accommodation and meal expenses will be covered by the University of Melbourne.

How to apply

To apply, complete an application form, a Confirmation of Aboriginality or a Statutory Declaration, a signed reference from an academic or professional staff member at your university, and a permission to be photographed form, then send all required forms in an email to Ruby Shepherd (ruby.shepherd@unimelb.edu.au).

Further information

For further information, please email Ruby Shepherd.