Updated data confirms Monash University is producing the highest number of graduates who go on to train as GPs.
The proportion of medical students who go on to enter GP training is roughly double the proportion who say they intend to become GPs, according to a joint RACGP and ACRRM university of origin analysis.
Melbourne’s Monash University may have turned out 115 of the GP registrars who commenced in the 2025 training year, but it is James Cook University in Queensland where 52% of graduates continue to GP training.
Despite the Medical Schools Outcome Database survey indicating that only around 16% of medical students between 2014 and 2024 intended to study general practice, around 33% of medical graduates went into general practice training.
The analysis paper, which was published on ACRRM’s website earlier this month, is an updated version of one previously released in September 2025. The previous version did not include numbers from ACRRM’s 2025 cohort.
Its headline conclusions are roughly the same – Monash turns out the highest absolute number of GP registrars, but James Cook University has the highest proportion of students who continue on to general practice training.
The dataset encompasses 1226 GPs-in-training who commenced on the Australian GP Training pathway in 2025.
In terms of absolute numbers, the top three performers were Monash University at 115 GP registrars, the University of Queensland at 107 GP registrars and James Cook University at 90 registrars.
The bottom performers were the University of Wollongong and Western Sydney University, both of which were tied at 36 GPs-in-training.
Both Curtin University and Macquarie University produced even lower absolute numbers, but the analysis notes that these medical schools are newer and thus have fewer overall graduates.
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In terms of the universities with the highest proportions of students who went on to general practice training, JCU was the standout performer; roughly 52% of its graduates went on to GP training in 2025.
Runner-up was the University of Notre Dame at Fremantle, where 50.5% of graduates went into GP training, followed by the University of Wollongong at 45.6%.
The bottom three were the University of Melbourne with 21.1% of graduates going into general practice and Macquarie University and Curtin University, where roughly 16% of students went on to general practice training.
In terms of registrars that went onto rural pathways, JCU came out on top again, with 27.2% of its students joining either ACRRM or the RACGP rural training programs.
JCU itself is located in regional Queensland and has historically put rural practise at the centre of its program; it was one of the first universities to offer end-to-end rural and regional clinical training.
The University of Tasmania was not too far behind, with 26.8% graduates continuing on to RACGP rural or ACRRM training.
The University of Wollongong ranked third, with 20.3%.
The three universities with the lowest proportions of graduates going into rural general practice were Curtin University, Bond University and Macquarie University.
Despite having low levels of graduates going into rural general practice, Bond University had the highest proportion of graduates going into the RACGP’s general training pathway, at 33.6%.
