The years-long plans to boost rural medicine are paying off, with one in three medical students planning to practice outside of a major capital city.
Roughly one in six medical students plan to pursue general practice or rural generalism upon graduation, making it the second-most popular specialty two years running.
The honour of most popular specialty went to internal medicine, which was first preference for 16% of the 2084 final-year medicine students surveyed for the 2025 Medical Schools Outcomes Database report.
When combined, 15.6% of respondents said their first preference specialty was general practice or rural generalism.
More specifically, 8.8% said they would choose general practice and 6.8% said they would choose rural generalism.
Anaesthesia was the next-most popular specialty option after general practice and rural generalism, drawing 14.3% of students, followed by surgery.
The least popular specialties this year were pain medicine and medical administration, which were the top preference for just one student each.
Another positive finding from this year’s report was that the various programs and initiatives in place to promote rural medicine appear to be paying off: one in three medical students said they planned to work in a non-metropolitan setting.
“The MSOD results reflect findings from other data that students from a rural background express higher levels of desire to practice in rural or regional locations,” the report, released by Medical Deans Australia and New Zealand on Friday, read.
“Nearly 40% of domestic student respondents from rural backgrounds preferred to work in a rural town or remote community versus 6% of those from a non-rural background.”
More than 40% of students who had taken long rural placements – i.e. 12 months or more – were keen to practice in a rural town or remote community, but this number dropped to 27.5% for those who undertook placements between six and 12 months and then down to 6.7% for students who did a rural placement of six months or less.
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“Not only do placements make a difference, 12-month placements are the ones that make the most,” ACRRM president Dr Rod Martin told The Medical Republic.
“Lots of schools, including my own medical school at University of New England, have only been able to do six-month placements.
“Well, that evidence now says that if you want to change intention right through, then you need to run a 12-month placement.”
The strongest factor that respondents said influenced their interest in their most-preferred specialty was “alignment of personal values”, followed by “atmosphere/work culture typical of the discipline”.
Experience of the specialty as a medical student ranked fourth, after intellectual content of the specialty.
Students have consistently ranked “perceived financial prospects” and “perceived prestige of discipline” as being among the least influential factors, and this year was no different.
Hanging around the middle of the pack were factors like “type of patients typical of the discipline”, “opportunity for procedural work” and “perceived job security”.
