The Royal Australasian College of Surgeon (RACS) selects trainees for nine surgical specialties annually. These include the following

  • Cardiothoracic Surgery
  • General Surgery
  • Neurosurgery
  • Orthopaedic Surgery
  • Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery (ENT)
  • Paediatric Surgery
  • Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
  • Urology
  • Vascular Surgery

Links to the nine surgical specialty can be found here

Each year’s selection timeline aligns with the following

February – Stage 1 – Registration Stage 

Potential candidate must register with RACS to lodge their intention to apply for surgical training by early February. There will be a fee associated with this registration and candidate can not progress to further stages of selection if this deadline was missed. Generic eligibility requires must be met when registering.

February to June – Stage 2 – Application and selection Stage

Candidates will then be able to submit applications to individual surgical specialities via their own application platform or via their RACS platform. Please note that different specialities have differing application requirements in terms of number/selection of referees, CV scoring and interview structure. At this stage is where candidates will be shortlisted for interview.

Candidates who are successful in securing an interview will then be notified of an interview date. Since the interview is not a centralised process, it is possible for candidates who applied for multiple specialties to receive multiple interviews, hence they can also clash. In the past, specialty societies are generally not accommodating of these clashes and candidates are forced to make a choice between different interviews. Please note that programs with national selection may host interviews interstate which needs to be factored in.

Further details in regards to the application process can be found on the RACS Website