There are Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia approved undergraduate and postgraduate midwifery courses in most states and territories throughout Australia apart from Tasmania. Depending on which pathway you take, it takes a minimum of 3 to 4 years to become a registered midwife.

As well as the academic criteria for course entry, undertaking clinical placements may have requirements such as:

• Providing your immunisation history
• A federal police check
• A working with vulnerable people registration
• A tuberculosis (TB) screening test
• Immunisations including Hepatitis B, Measles, Mumps, Rubella and Pertussis (whooping cough)
• Senior First Aid and CPR training
• A working with children check
• Signing a student declaration form for clinical placements in state government health facilities

Undergraduate entry into midwifery

For entry into an undergraduate midwifery course commencing in 2022, the ATARs and Selection Ranks ranged from 75 to the high 90s. Following is a guide for the ATARs and/or Selection Ranks for every midwifery course in Australia in 2022:

Please note that this is a rough guide only for future years as it changes from year to year depending on the applications each university receives, and that some universities will also have additional selection criteria to gain entry.

If you don’t gain entry directly following high school, some universities will allow you to transfer into their undergraduate midwifery degree following a year in one of their other undergraduate degrees – for example a science degree. This will be dependent on your Grade Point Average in your first year subjects and could also involve other admission requirements. You ATAR may also be considered.

There may also be pathways available for diploma of nursing students and qualified enrolled nurses too. Please speak with an admissions officer at the universities you are considering applying for to see if this pathway may be available to you.

Postgraduate entry into midwifery

There are postgraduate midwifery courses in most states and territories in Australia. Entry into these courses generally requires current registration as a Registered Nurse in Australia, a previous Bachelor degree or equivalent in nursing, and concurrent employment on a part time basis as a student midwife in a hospital midwifery unit.

Following is a list of postgraduate midwifery courses in Australia in 2022:

Be sure to check the entry requirements with each university you are considering applying for.

Pathways to become a midwife

Following is an infographic which provides an overview of the pathways to becoming qualified as a midwife in Australia. For simplicity, it does not include the possibility of transferring into midwifery from another course, and pathways for enrolled nurses. For more detailed pathways information, go to our “become a midwife page“.

Current list of approved programs of study to become a midwife

The information presented in this article was correct at the time of publishing. Please check with the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia for an up to date list of approved programs of study to become a midwife in Australia.

If you would like to find courses to become a midwife:
1. Go to https://www.ahpra.gov.au/Accreditation/Approved-Programs-of-Study.aspx
2. In Profession select Midwife
3. In Country make the appropriate selection – for example, Australia
4. In Qualification Type select General
5. Click Search

More resources on My Health Career

• Become a midwife
• A midwife’s round-about pathway into a career in health

Disclaimer

This information is general in nature and does not take into account your personal circumstances. My Health Career accepts no responsibility for ensuring that you enrol in a course that is right for you. Please do your own research to ensure that you enrol in the correct course, especially if you are considering an undergraduate degree as a pathway to a postgraduate course. This may include speaking with a careers advisor, guidance officer, career development practitioner, representatives of the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation, and admissions officers from the university or universities you are looking at applying to.