Aspiring to find a cure for cancer isn’t a cliché. At UOW we’re at the forefront of health and medical research in Australia, tackling motor neurone disease and Alzheimer’s, antimicrobial resistance, and finding new treatments for cancer. If you’d like to join our efforts and add to the advances gained through medical science, choose your path at UOW below.
Advance medical science
How will you advance medical science?
Medical science
Would you like to cure illness and discover treatments that improve health? Would you like to make advancements in medicine that could impact lives around the world? Consider medical health sciences or medicine when you study health at UOW.
Health
Would you like to understand disease to better manage health conditions and improve longevity or quality of life? Or are you interested in finding techniques to improve physical performance and recovery? Study in the field of health at UOW could be for you.
Nursing
Would you like to identify better methods to manage health and wellbeing? Are you interested in caring for others, and gaining job satisfaction that is impossible to feel in any other career? A degree in nursing at UOW could be right for you.
My passion for medical and health science has stemmed from doing a lot of health and fitness back in high school. I’d go to the gym and do different sports. Coming to university, I was able to do all my anatomy and physiology subjects and so that’s where my passion is going towards, learning everything about the human body.
Stories to inspire you
When research becomes personal
Professor Justin Yerbury is a commerce graduate and basketballer whose world was upended by Motor Neurone Disease. He continues to fight for progress in his research, even as the disease takes over his body. His message to others is that no matter who you are, if you set your mind to it, you can make a difference.
Healthy gut, healthy mind
In a rapidly evolving field of research, it is becoming clear that our largest sensory organ – the gut – has an intimate connection with our brain, and with our mental health. Often called ‘the second brain’, the trillions of microbes that we carry in the gut produce the same neuro-transmitters that are used for regulation of the brain.
Brain food
Imagine being able to prevent memory loss through diet. UOW’s Professor Karen Charlton believes this prospect isn’t as far-fetched as it may sound. She’s working with a multi-disciplinary team of professionals to discover how something as simple as eating purple-coloured foods might help with early dementia.
Audacious approaches to big challenges
When we’re sick, it is often the case that we’re prescribed a medicine that treats the problem. But what if there are other ways? Distinguished Professor Gordon Wallace is translating fundamental discoveries in materials science into the next generation of devices to improve people’s health and quality of life.
Nursing is not just about dispensing medication or administering treatments. Nurses also are responsible for teaching patients about preventing and managing medical conditions. By relaying information, nurses help patients take control of their healthcare.
See where your degree could take you
Your interest in advancing medical science could lead to a diverse and rewarding career, with opportunities in medical research, and healthcare in both the public and private sectors.
No matter your path, your UOW degree is appreciated by employers; UOW is consistently rated in the world's top 200 by global employers (QS Graduate Employability rankings). Here are just some of the careers you could pursue:
- Allied health professional
- Biomedical researcher
- Clinical nurse consultant
- Dietitian
- Doctor
- Emergency nurse
- Exercise scientist / physiologist
- General practitioner
- Health administrator
- Health care manager
- Health worker
- Indigenous health officer
- Laboratory technician
- Mental health advocate
- Nurse educator
- Nurse manager
- Nutritionist
- Registered nurse
- Rehabilitation specialist
- Scientific researcher
- Specialist nurse
- Sports scientist
Career options
UOW's Careers Central offers advice on the career options that study in a particular discipline can provide, including sample jobs, employers, key skills, professional associations and postgraduate study options.
Work while you study
UOW offers a number of services that can help make finding work that fits with your studies a little easier.
Employability Programs
See how UOW can help you connect with potential employers and learn the skills you need to launch your career successfully.