Hello there!
Glad to see someone taking interest in Radiography at Monash
I found this post when a friend linked it to me. I'm a first year in BRadMedImag at the moment, so I can definitely most of the questions you've asked.
The degree itself was only established in 1996, so it's pretty recent.
Contact hours are definitely quite high for this course, as for quite a lot of other medical related courses. However, as you progress throughout the 4 years of the course, contact hours decrease, as you learn most of the main aspects of general radiography in the first 2 years, with the final 2 years covering specific imaging modalities, so there are less contact hours associated.
As for how and a lot of my other friends in this course are going, we are finding we quite enjoy it. It's quite interesting understanding the principles between taking an x-ray of the different parts of the body, how you adapt depending on the specific clinical situation. Quite a few areas of the course do link up with each other, so it consolidates your knowledge further too. You will definitely enjoy the more practical side of this course, whether that be looking at bones and different body parts to learn your anatomy in lab sessions, or actually taking an x-ray yourself, either on a phantom or when you go out on placement!
Jobs wise, you come into quite a lot of contact with doctors, as they are some of the demonstrators for some of the lab sessions. Quite a lot will tell you that radiographers will have more job opportunities than they do. Radiography as a field, and radiographers are in quite high demand at the moment, and there are a few places you can take your degree around the world, such as Canada, the UK, New Zealand etc.
As for RMIT, that is the older course of the two courses. Some hospitals/clinical centres prefer Monash graduates, some prefer RMIT graduates. Depends on the place.
In terms of the course though, their course is 3 years, plus a year of internship.
At Monash, It's a 4 year course, 2 placements a year from Year 1-3, then 1 placement in 4th year that lasts 6 months.
Content wise, Monash places heavy emphasis on anatomy and pathology, compared to RMIT (or so I've heard).
This is also a thing that I've heard tell from a friend who has a friend at RMIT. They were x-raying coconuts while we were doing actual phantoms of human body parts (RMIT Medical Imaging students, please clarify!!!)
As for clinical placements: clinical placements can happen pretty much anywhere in the state that accepts students. Sometimes even outside the state, if they have spots there too. However, you can place a preference for where you want to go. However, I recommend that you try and have a variety of places that you put down as a preference, as more often than not, you won't get your first preference. And some places can only accept a few students, or even only 1. So if 80 kids choose Monash Medical, then they have to rejig the entire preference list so the other clinical sites also have students going to them. So, you can place preferences, but depending on how everyone else has chosen their preferences, the department might need to step in and start allocating students to places that have no one going to them. The main idea behind it is: if you pick it, and no one else does, you get to go there.
Rural placements are also a thing that are unavoidable in this course, as with a lot of other medical courses, as rural sites need more health workers in general. In general, you need to do at least ONE rural placement throughout the course.
I feel like I've answered your questions, or rambled as I am prone to do. So, feel free to keep asking more specific questions if you like! I'll keep checking
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