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RACS / NSA
When Neurosurgery applications run, and what the round looks like.
Applications
Anatomy Examination registration opens 10 November, 12 noon AEDT, more than a year before training starts.
Dates are set for each intake, so check the current Regulations.
No hard PGY cut-off. PGY3 is the earliest realistic application point, because the dedicated neurosurgical experience has to be accumulated in the three years before applying and the Anatomy Examination has to be passed before applications open.
Training positions and workforce figures below are limited to South Australia. Selection criteria, requirements and application dates are set by RACS / NSA nationally and apply in every state.
Very high
How Neurosurgery training is structured.
The first level of three
To complete
The second level
To complete
The third level
To complete
CCrISP, Care of the Critically Ill Surgical Patient
Mandatory across all nine surgical specialties.
Basic
EMST, Early Management of Severe Trauma
Mandatory across all nine surgical specialties. Certification lasts four years.
Intermediate
CLEAR, Critical Literature Evaluation and Research
Mandatory for neurosurgery trainees. The requirements grid does not tie it to a level.
During training
Fellowship Examination
Advanced
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.
Total 100, with a minimum standard on every tool
Minimum 70%, and it must be passed before applications open rather than during selection.
Minimum 12 out of 24.
Nurse unit managers, theatre and ward nurses, emergency, intensive care and anaesthetics consultants, and junior doctors. Minimum average of 2.0 on every scored question.
Scored out of 12 across surgical experience, intensive care experience, rural regional and remote origin, publications, qualifications and presentations. Minimum 6 out of 12.
Minimum average of 3.0.
Rotations, logbooks, procedures, and exposure
Selection points and pathways for Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, and Māori applicants
Sourced from Australian medical community discussion.
The November before you apply
Before the Anatomy Examination
For three years before applying
Across those same years
Well before you apply
When choosing a Home Region
Expect to apply more than once. Across the last six intakes there were 8 to 17 appointments a year against 39 to 65 applicants.
Selection and workforce history, transcribed as published.
49
Applicants
2026 intake, selected during 2025
17
Successful
2026 intake
34.7%
Success rate
2026 intake — calculated from the published figures
18.37%
Women among applicants
2026 intake
Neurosurgery runs one national round a year, and publishes the full funnel: how many applied, how many were ruled unsuitable or withdrew, how many were interviewed but unsuccessful, and how many were appointed. Applicant numbers fell from 65 for the 2021 intake to 39 for the 2025 intake before rising to 49 for 2026, while appointments have ranged from 8 to 17. Women were between 15% and 27% of applicants in every year shown.
The whole applicant pool for each intake, split by outcome. Each column's three outcome rows add to that column's applicant count.
| Selection | 2026 intake (during 2025) | 2025 intake (during 2024) |
|---|
Queensland Health is the only state department publishing these figures so far.
No published figures exist yet for South Australia. This is being worked on. The selection criteria and requirements above apply Australia wide regardless of state. See the Queensland figures.
Changes published by RACS / NSA.
NSA completed a selection-reform consultation (57 submissions) adopted for the 2027 intake: the former Reference Report tool was restructured into a multi-source feedback report (20%) plus a portfolio assessment (10%), consultant telephone interviews were reduced from three to two, and the "other surgical experience" CV category was broadened.
Advance notice: Bachelor Honours degrees stop scoring CV points from the 2028 intake, and from the 2029 intake only the highest-scoring postgraduate qualification counts.
The Neurosurgery Anatomy Examination became a pre-application eligibility gate from the 2025 intake, sat before applications open rather than during selection.
2 posts across 2 hospitals in South Australia. Each circle counts hospitals.
Show these kinds of site
Select a circle to see the hospital.
Hospital locations © OpenStreetMap contributors. State boundaries from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Published by RACS / NSA and the Medical Board unless stated.
Colleges, portals and rubrics
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 RACS / NSA before making career decisions. Report an error on this page.
Exams, qualifications, courses, and teaching
Papers, impact factor, audits, and QI
Who is asked to report on you, and what they are asked
Format, stations, and what the interview assesses
How the application is marked and weighted
Application, interview, and registration costs
Registration mechanics and logistics not covered above
| 2024 intake (during 2023) |
|---|
| 2023 intake (during 2022) |
|---|
| 2022 intake (during 2021) |
|---|
| 2021 intake (during 2020) |
|---|
| Applicants | 49 | 39 | 61 | 62 | 50 | 65 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Applicants — female | 9 | 6 | 14 | 17 | 9 | 16 |
| Applicants — male | 40 | 33 | 47 | 45 | 41 | 49 |
| Applicants — female % | 18.37% | 15.38% | 22.95% | 27.42% | 18.00% | 24.62% |
| Unsuitable or withdrawn | 7 | 6 | 3 | 14 | 11 | 22 |
| Unsuccessful | 25 | 22 | 50 | 38 | 26 | 30 |
| Successful | 17 | 11 | 8 | 10 | 13 | 13 |
| Successful — female | 4 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 3 |
| Successful — male | 13 | 10 | 5 | 7 | 12 | 10 |
| Successful — female % | 23.5% | 9.10% | 37.5% | 30.00% | 7.69% | 23.08% |
| Success rate (calculated) | 34.7% | 28.2% | 13.1% | 16.1% | 26.0% | 20.0% |
Source: Board of Neurosurgery, Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and the Neurosurgical Society of Australasia. Surgical Education and Training Program in Neurosurgery — Selection Statistics, six years (2021 to 2026 intakes). Figures are transcribed as published.