Abstract
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• The medical schools at the University of Western Sydney, University of Wollongong and University of Sydney have developed a joint program for training medical students through placements of up to 40 weeks on the New South Wales North Coast. • The new partnership agency - the North Coast Medical Education Collaboration - builds on the experience of regional doctors and their academic partners. • A steering committee has identified the availability and support requirements of local practitioners to provide training, and has undertaken a comparative mapping of learning objectives and assessments from the courses of the three universities. • The goals of the program include preparing doctors who can perform effectively in rural settings and multidisciplinary health care teams, and to advance research in medical education.