Accreditation Standards and Procedures
The AMC is the accreditation authority for the medical profession under the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law as in force in each state and territory (the National Law). Accreditation standard, for a health profession, means a standard used to assess whether a program of study, and the education provider that provides the program of study, provide persons who complete the program with the knowledge, skills and professional attributes necessary to practise the profession in Australia.
The AMC develops accreditation standards for medical programs and their education providers. The Medical Board of Australia approves accreditation standards for the medical profession.
The AMC uses accreditation standards to assess medical programs for accreditation. The AMC also uses the standards in monitoring accredited programs and providers.
The AMC develops standards for all phases of medical training and education. The standards follow similar structure and formatting, but are customised to the requirements of the stage of training and education.
The AMC reviews the standards regularly. It takes account of the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency’s Procedures for Development of Accreditation Standards, and the objectives and guiding principles in the National Law. The AMC also considers other relevant Australian standards (such as those for the other regulated health professions, and the Higher Education Threshold Standards) as well as international standards for medical education and training.
When it is reviewing standards, the AMC places notices about the phase of the review and consultations underway on this page.
The AMC is reviewing the Standards for Assessment and Accreditation of Primary Medical Programs: see here.
The AMC is reviewing the National Prevocational Framework, previously known as the National Framework for Internship: see here.
AMC updates accreditation procedures to align terminology across the regulated health professions
The AMC has approved minor wording changes to its procedures for accreditation of medical programs as a result of a project on consistent accreditation terminology undertaken by all the accreditation authorities for the 15 regulated health professions.
As the accreditation authority for the medical profession under the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law, the AMC is a member of the Health Professions Accreditation Collaborative Forum, a coalition of the accreditation authorities operating under the National Law.
In response to feedback from accreditation stakeholders, the Forum has been examining the terminology used by accreditation authorities to describe their accreditation decisions and major accreditation events and working towards common terminology that aligns with that used in the National Law.
The AMC has standard accreditation procedures that apply to all its accreditation processes, which include: medical school, intern training accreditation authority, specialist medical program, workplace based assessment program and pre-employment clinical interview provider accreditation. The procedures are customized to reflect the specific accreditation context. Following the Forum project, in October 2019, the AMC made a small number of minor changes to all of its accreditation procedures to bring them into line with the terminology endorsed by the Forum.
A list of agreed Forum terminology is available on the Forum website.
Revised AMC accreditation procedures are available below.
Primary medical education
Specialist medical education and training
Specialist medical programs
Acupuncture
Prevocational standards accreditation
Intern training authorities
Domains Intern training – Domains for assessing accreditation authorities
Procedures Procedures for assessment and accreditation of intern training accreditation authorities by the Australian Medical Council
Revised Domains to be implemented from 2024 Domains for assessing and accrediting prevocational training accreditation authorities
Revised Procedures to be implemented from 2024 Procedures for assessing and accrediting prevocational training accreditation authorities
Pre-employment Structured Clinical Interviews (PESCI)
Workplace based assessment
Standards and Procedures Australian Medical Council Accreditation of Workplace Based Assessment Providers: Standards and Procedures
Recognition of medical specialties
Accreditation of CPD homes
Criteria Criteria for AMC Accreditation of CPD Homes
Procedures Procedures for AMC Accreditation of CPD Homes
Code of conduct for accreditation processes
The AMC code of conduct describes the AMC expectations of the people and groups who contribute to its accreditation process. The Code is a standing item for each AMC accreditation related activity. The AMC includes training about these expectations in its regular accreditation training. The Code of Conduct is available here.