New Fellowship Program

A new Fellowship Program is being developed to prepare psychiatrists for a fast-changing world – fostering compassion, cultural safety, and patient-centred care; sharpening skills to evaluate and apply treatments; and building leadership and digital literacy to navigate modern mental health care with confidence and integrity.

This is more than an update. It’s a complete rethink of how we train and assess psychiatrists.

The process of designing the new program will include a comprehensive review of learning outcomes, curriculum, teaching and learning environments, and assessments, guided by three key principles:

A generalist approach to meet workforce needs across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.
A competency-based medical education framework.
A hybrid assessment model, with both workplace-based assessments and external clinical and written exams.

The goal is to create a program that: 

Strengthens clinical mastery including formulation, evidence-informed reasoning, and therapeutic decision-making across biological, psychological, social, and cultural domains.
Develops compassionate, culturally safe and patient-centred psychiatrists grounded in relational, ethical, and recovery-oriented care.
Equips psychiatrists with future-focused capabilities, including digital and AI literacy and the ability to understand how health systems connect to deliver safe, effective, and personalised care.
Fosters collaborative and adaptive leaders who can navigate complexity, uncertainty, and system-level reform.
Demonstrates clear alignment between curriculum, desired outcomes, and assessment.
Reflects contemporary priorities and harnesses advances in medical education, technology, and cultural safety.
Inspires trust in the quality and relevance of psychiatric training across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, while meeting community and workforce needs.

Background

Since the introduction of the current Fellowship Program in 2012, psychiatry and the health system have evolved significantly. COVID-related challenges required rapid changes to training and assessment, and after 13 years, the current program shows some misalignment with modern psychiatric priorities and the expectations of trainees and communities. At the same time, advances in medical education offer opportunities to strengthen outcomes and better prepare psychiatrists for the complexity of contemporary mental health care.

The College recognises that incremental changes to the 2012 Fellowship Program are no longer sufficient. Work is underway to design a new Fellowship Program for implementation by 2030 - one shaped by member input and contemporary priorities.

Impact on the current Fellowship program

While the new program is being designed, the Education Committee will continue to manage and implement quality improvements to the current Fellowship Program, particularly where required for compliance and accreditation. However, where possible, changes will be limited to avoid unnecessary disruption before the new program is implemented.

Taskforce

The New Fellowship Program Taskforce – made up of senior RANZCP Fellows, educational specialists, and external experts – is shaping the vision and guiding principles for the new program as the first step in its development.

In 2026, the Taskforce will share a high-level prototype for broad consultation with members and stakeholders. This prototype will outline the program’s vision, principles, and structure. After consultation, detailed development and implementation will be led by the Education Committee and the Dean of Education.

Want to know more?

See the New Fellowship Program Taskforce Frequently Asked Questions.

Contact: newfellowshipprogram@ranzcp.org

Have your say

Input is actively sought from both members and non-members. The key questions are:

What aspects of the current program should be retained?
What elements of the current program should be discontinued?
What are the limitations in the current program that we should address?
Are there any innovative approaches, trends, technologies or unique features we should explore and consider integrating into the new Fellowship program?
What would make the program more relevant, appealing and engaging for medical graduates and psychiatry trainees?
What else would you like to tell us?

Member feedback

Members can provide feedback via the Consultation Hub. This is a critical window for trainees and Fellows to influence what the future of psychiatric training looks like.

Non-member feedback

Non-members can provide feedback via email: newfellowshipprogram@ranzcp.org