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RACGP
When General Practice applications run, and what the round looks like.
Mar
Applications generally open from March to April each year.
Mar
The 2027 cycle opened 3 March 2026, closed 14 April 2026, and is now finished: all 2027 places were allocated in that main intake, with no second round.
Annual intake for the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) Australian General Practice Training (AGPT) programme, one application round per cycle.
The College invites an expression of interest for the 2028 programme instead.
ACRRM runs FOUR rolling intake cycles a year (its 2027 guide replaced the old semester model).
Check the college websites for current dates.
No postgraduate-year floor applies for AGPT entry. The "PGY2 certification" sometimes cited is a downstream first-GP-term milestone, not an entry requirement.
Training positions and workforce figures below are limited to New South Wales. Selection criteria, requirements and application dates are set by RACGP nationally and apply in every state.
Moderate
How General Practice training is structured.
52 weeks
Competencies
To complete
78 weeks, 26 weeks each, beginning in the second year
Competencies
26 weeks
Competencies
To complete
Basic life support course
Within the preceding 12 months, and again within the 12 months before applying for Fellowship.
Before the first general practice term
Advanced life support course
Within 4 years of applying for Fellowship
Applied Knowledge Test
150 multiple choice questions.
Before the Clinical Competency Exam
Key Feature Problem exam
70 multi-selection questions.
Before the Clinical Competency Exam
Clinical Competency Exam
Online, assessed by multiple examiners across nine clinical cases.
After passing both the Applied Knowledge Test and the Key Feature Problem exam
4 years, to be completed within 6
Awarded in addition to FRACGP, adding a hospital training year, additional rural skills training and core emergency medicine training. A separate dual fellowship with ACRRM runs to a 5 year limit, or 6 years where it includes advanced specialised training in surgery.
Entry gates that are not scored, such as a visa, residency status, or the type of medical registration required.
One set of categories across every specialty, so two can be compared. Only those with criteria recorded for this specialty are shown.
Rural, regional, and remote experience
Selection points and pathways for Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, and Māori applicants
Who is asked to report on you, and what they are asked
Format, stations, and what the interview assesses
Registration mechanics and logistics not covered above
Sourced from Australian medical community discussion.
Medical school and prevocational years
Before applying
Hospital term
After acceptance
From 2026, no referees are required in the AGPT application for standard entry. The selection is based on the online assessment. Prepare thoroughly for the assessment format described on the RACGP website.
Rural pathway financial incentives are real, but placements commutable to a major city are limited and highly competitive.
ACRRM (Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine) offers an alternative fellowship pathway focused on rural generalism. Consider both colleges if you are interested in rural or remote medicine.
If you have already sat RACGP Fellowship exams since January 2019, you need at least 2 of your 6 exam semesters remaining at training commencement to be eligible to (re-)apply.
GETTING A TRAINING PRACTICE IS A SECOND APPLICATION, and it is the one most applicants are least prepared for. Once you hold a program offer you give your training intentions, then view and apply for vacancies in the RACGP placement portal, then take part in each site's own selection. The portal shows details of each vacancy and how many applicants a site already has, which is the only competitiveness number anywhere in the process. Practices differ: some interview potential registrars, others offer without interviewing. Prepare for an interview and do not assume one.
WHAT PRACTICES TEND TO VALUE, and RACGP publishes none of this. It is intoSET's reading of how practices describe their own recruitment, so weigh it against the vacancies you are actually applying to. Clinical breadth in the disciplines general practice draws on most: dermatology, obstetrics and gynaecology, orthopaedics, emergency medicine, paediatrics, ear nose and throat, psychiatry, sexual health and geriatrics. Time already spent consulting in general practice, which is the closest evidence there is that you can do the job. Procedural skills a practice can use from day one: skin excisions and suturing, joint and soft tissue injections, implant and intrauterine device insertion, cryotherapy, spirometry, point-of-care ultrasound. Experience with the population a particular practice serves, such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, refugee or migrant health, aged care, drug and alcohol, or student health.
AUDIT TRAVELS FURTHEST of the academic criteria, because practices run their own quality improvement and accreditation, so a registrar who has completed an audit cycle is useful rather than merely credentialled. Research and publications matter more at a teaching or academic practice and less at a busy community one. Teaching experience matters where the practice takes medical students itself. A diploma in a field the practice works in, such as child health, sexual and reproductive health, skin cancer medicine or the DRANZCOG, is worth more than a general postgraduate qualification.
Selection and workforce history, transcribed as published.
29,476
Fellows, all pathways
At 31 December 2025
23,010
Largest pathway
Australian General Practice Training program
1,694
AGPT training places, 2027 intake
Sum of the published regional allocations
General practice is by far the largest specialty in Australia, but its Fellows are spread across seven separately reported training and recognition pathways. The Australian General Practice Training program accounts for 23,010 of the 29,476 Fellows below — the rest reach fellowship through the practice-eligible route, the practice experience programs, the rural pathways or the specialist pathway.
General practice fellowship is reported by pathway. Each row counts Fellows up to age 70 at 31 December 2025, with Fellows living overseas, retired and deceased removed.
| Pathway | ACT | NSW | NT | QLD | SA | TAS | VIC |
|---|
Queensland Health is the only state department publishing these figures so far.
No published figures exist yet for New South Wales. This is being worked on. The selection criteria and requirements above apply Australia wide regardless of state. See the Queensland figures.
Changes published by RACGP.
RACGP AGPT major changes for 2026 intake: (1) No referees required in application. (2) Single online assessment replaces the MMI and CAAKT. Application window for 2026 intake was 3 March to 8 April 2025.
7 posts across 7 hospitals in New South Wales. Each circle counts hospitals.
Show these kinds of site
Select a region to see the hospitals inside it.
Hospital locations © OpenStreetMap contributors. State boundaries from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Published by RACGP and the Medical Board unless stated.
Colleges, portals and rubrics
Within General Practice
A dot marks a field with its own page. The rest inherit this one.
Connected to this specialty by the Medical Board’s specialty structure, by college, or by a shared training pathway.
Requirements, windows, and criteria change annually. Verify with RACGP before making career decisions. Report an error on this page.
REFEREES AND THE APPLICATION ITSELF. A supervisor who has watched you consult and can speak to your reliability is worth more to a practice than a senior name who cannot. Write the application for the vacancy in front of you rather than sending one document to every site, because the practice can see how many others have applied. Apply early and to more than one: an unsuccessful application simply means applying elsewhere, and vacancies close as they fill.
A NOTE ON THE CV IN AGPT ITSELF, which is separate from all of the above: a CV with three referees is asked for only where an eligibility review is triggered, and it is used during the eligibility phase rather than for training program entry selection. The other CV you submit is at onboarding, after an offer is already accepted. Neither is scored for entry.
| WA |
|---|
| Total |
|---|
| AGPT Program | 495 | 7,028 | 259 | 5,106 | 1,810 | 677 | 5,363 | 2,272 | 23,010 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RACGP Practice Eligible Route | 87 | 1,078 | 45 | 1,216 | 376 | 93 | 1,541 | ||
| RACGP PEP Standard | 9 | 135 | 4 | 74 | 27 | 18 | 155 | ||
| RACGP PEP Specialist | 12 | 53 | 1 | 44 | 18 | 5 | 67 | ||
| ACRRM Independent Pathway | 9 | 82 | 23 | 157 | 12 | 16 | 45 | ||
| RVTS | 10 | 98 | 11 | 85 | 7 | 5 | 39 | ||
| Specialist pathway | 1 | 8 | 1 | 26 | 6 | 0 | 9 | ||
| RACGP FSP | 0 | 0 | Not published | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| RGTS Pathway | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| All pathways, total | 623 | 8,482 | 344 | 6,708 | 2,256 | 814 | 7,219 | 3,030 | 29,476 |
Available training places and the number of applicants who put each region at each preference, for the 2027 Australian General Practice Training main intake. Published by the Department of Health as a live page and captured at 15 May 2026.
| State and training region | Pathway | Places | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NSW — Lower Eastern NSW: ACT and surrounds (your selected state) | General | 30 | 29 | 14 | 22 | 25 | 35 | 30 |
| NSW — Lower Eastern NSW: Central Eastern and South Western Sydney (your selected state) | General | 120 | 181 | 112 | 63 | 36 | 28 | |
| NSW — Lower Eastern NSW: Central Eastern and South Western Sydney (your selected state) | General - Composite | 20 | 15 | 64 | 57 | 76 | 25 | |
| NSW — Lower Eastern NSW: South Eastern NSW (your selected state) | General | 20 | 18 | 24 | 47 | 41 | 48 | 42 |
| NSW — Lower Eastern NSW: South Eastern NSW (your selected state) | Rural | 40 | 139 | 114 | 70 | 74 | 75 | 89 |
| NSW — North Eastern NSW: Hunter Manning and Central Coast (your selected state) | General | 35 | 43 | 10 | 59 | 41 | 59 | 37 |
| NSW — North Eastern NSW: Hunter Manning and Central Coast (your selected state) | Rural | 25 | 106 | 110 | 105 | 67 | 68 | 57 |
| NSW — North Eastern NSW: Nepean Western and Northern Sydney (your selected state) | General | 100 | 115 | 136 | 60 | 41 | 20 | |
| NSW — North Eastern NSW: Nepean Western and Northern Sydney (your selected state) | General - Composite | 15 | 10 | 34 | 44 | 75 | 27 | |
| NSW — North Eastern NSW: New England and North West (your selected state) | Rural | 25 | 21 | 51 | 59 | 72 | 70 | 59 |
| NSW — North Eastern NSW: North Coast (your selected state) | General | 20 | 17 | 30 | 32 | 38 | 41 | 43 |
| NSW — North Eastern NSW: North Coast (your selected state) | Rural | 40 | 52 | 112 | 144 | 113 | 78 | 65 |
| NSW — Western NSW: Murrumbidgee (your selected state) | Rural | 25 | 21 | 33 | 43 | 46 | 65 | 59 |
| NSW — Western NSW: Western NSW (your selected state) | Rural | 35 | 39 | 36 | 47 | 42 | 68 | 76 |
| NT — Northern Territory | General | 10 | 14 | 6 | 9 | 7 | 19 | 12 |
| NT — Northern Territory | Rural | 27 | 28 | 25 | 18 | 17 | 22 | 40 |
| QLD — North Western Queensland | Rural | 85 | 128 | 129 | 82 | 75 | 65 | 69 |
| QLD — South Eastern Queensland | General | 150 | 247 | 57 | 50 | 26 | 29 | 34 |
| QLD — South Eastern Queensland | General - Composite | 15 | 17 | 119 | 32 | 26 | 7 | 12 |
| QLD — South Eastern Queensland | Rural | 85 | 256 | 196 | 157 | 100 | 99 | 85 |
| SA — South Australia | General | 90 | 90 | 23 | 18 | 15 | 25 | 27 |
| SA — South Australia | Rural | 70 | 131 | 104 | 49 | 87 | 116 | 100 |
| TAS — Tasmania | Rural | 55 | 84 | 46 | 69 | 66 | 106 | 113 |
| VIC — Metro East Victoria | General | 115 | 221 | 123 | 76 | 45 | 29 | 30 |
| VIC — Metro East Victoria | General - Composite | 25 | 19 | 64 | 75 | 86 | 25 | 27 |
| VIC — Metro West Victoria | General | 47 | 131 | 173 | 79 | 46 | 33 | 17 |
| VIC — Metro West Victoria | General - Composite | 15 | 14 | 41 | 57 | 85 | 26 | 21 |
| VIC — Metro and Rural South West Victoria | General | 20 | 20 | 21 | 63 | 26 | 84 | 24 |
| VIC — Metro and Rural South West Victoria | Rural | 25 | 118 | 145 | 126 | 138 | 81 | 74 |
| VIC — Rural North East Victoria | Rural | 40 | 70 | 104 | 120 | 128 | 82 | 88 |
| VIC — Rural North West Victoria | Rural | 25 | 96 | 102 | 130 | 109 | 75 | 70 |
| VIC — Rural South East Victoria | Rural | 30 | 126 | 97 | 149 | 140 | 75 | 89 |
| WA — Western Australia | General | 110 | 138 | 20 | 16 | 23 | 25 | 36 |
| WA — Western Australia | Rural | 105 | 208 | 183 | 107 | 89 | 118 | 123 |
| All regions, total | 1,694 | Not published | Not published | Not published | Not published | Not published | Not published |
Source: Australian Government Department of Health. Medical Education and Training (2025), Chapter 4: Fellows — College Fellows by state, as at 31 December 2025. The 2027 intake distribution matrix is a separate Department of Health page, captured at 15 May 2026 in the same supplied compilation. Figures are transcribed as published.
| 5,029 |
| 458 |
| 242 |
| 384 |
| 289 |
| 64 |
| 0 |