Hey everyone,

Firstly a warm welcome and congratulations to new and not-so-new Deakin Medical Students - Medicine will both challenge and reward you, and is so wide in breadth and depth that it will sustain a lifelong career.

Of course, the challenges can be met with frustration and most of you will feel overwhelmed at some point in time. Medicine is not designed to suck the marrow out of life, nor are you expected to live and breath it unless you want to. Everyone comes into medicine with varying life experiences so take advantage of this melting pot of diversity and form a strong social network.

If you are suffering  with the academic side of things or feel like you are not being supported or guided adequately in your studies, chances are most of the cohort will feel the same way. So instead of channelling your frustrations into dead ended complaints, feed them back to the MeDUSA Academic Subcommittee (academic@medusa.org.au). We are the first port of call for all issues academic related and are in a good position to liaise with teaching staff at all levels. The School of Medicine, being a relatively new Medical School, has made numerous changes to its teaching program in the past solely based on student feedback, so don't be complacent if you think things could be improved.

So what are some of the things we do:

- Academic Advocacy and Representation on the School of Medicine Teaching and Learning Committee and Advisory Boards.

- Seminars relating to Careers Nights, Vocational Training, Electives and many more.

- Organised tutorials to help you along the way. E.g. Essay writing tutorials.

- Practice Exam Questions.

-Learning Objectives and Study Notes Exchange.

- HME Surveys and provision of avenues to feedback to the Faculty.

Of course we survive, and thrive on the feedback that you give us - so don't hesitate to bombard us with ideas on seminars, what you feel are areas that the School can improve on, or curriculum-related concerns.

So feel free to drop us a line at academic@medusa.org.au, or post your comments on the DSO All Students Discussion Board where there is a forum for Academic-related matters - and watch that space for upcoming events and seminars as well!

See you round and all the best for the year,

Suyi Ooi

MeDUSA Academic Vice President

Email: academic@medusa.org.au

Colby Hart

MeDUSA 1st Year Academic Representative

Email: cthart@deakin.edu.au