Sport, Health & Wellbeing
‘Here to listen’ UC’s new Director of the Medical and Counselling Centre puts student wellbeing first
When Dr Chris Dickie began studying medicine in Scotland, he never imaged that general practice would become his calling.
Today, he finds himself on the other side of the world, leading the University of Canberra's Medical and Counselling Centre, and helping thousands of students access the care they need to thrive.
Having completed a Medical Science degree at Scotland’s University of St Andrews, he then when on to study Medicine at the University of Glasgow, planning to work in a hospital after graduation.
“After enjoying every rotation in different parts of medicine, I realised the thing I liked was seeing everything. I’ve always enjoyed the variety and the challenges that come from thinking about a whole person rather than focussing on one issue,” he says.
And so, a fateful rotation during his second year after graduation led him to general practice, where a lifelong passion was born.
“As a GP, I have no idea what is going to walk through my door day-to-day, which is really interesting. But I also get to form relationships with my patients and see them over weeks, months and years. We work together, and I get to watch their lives develop.
“In the hospital, I was often seeing people for only a few days at a time. By the time I got back on shift, they had been discharged and I had no idea what happened to them or whether my team had done the right thing. It’s really nice to be part of that continuing journey instead.”
Chris completed his studies 10 years ago and moved to Canberra in 2018. Initially working in the Emergency Department at The Canberra Hospital, he then went on to do his GP training in the Canberra region. Along the way he also gained experience in rehabilitation and medical administration though Canberra Health Services. He joined the ANU in 2024, as well as the Australian Journal of General Practice, giving a firm grounding in university life and academic medicine.
He joined the University of Canberra to lead the Medical and Counselling team in July this year, drawn to UC after hearing positive stories about the workplace culture and driven by a desire to offer accessible, high-quality healthcare, knowing the role universities can play in supporting student success and wellbeing.
“Healthcare is so important for everybody and one of the key parts of that is having it be accessible. Here we can provide specialist general practice, nursing, psychologist and psychiatrist care all in the same place – at no charge to students – and that is vital for making it easy for people to access,” he says.
“By supporting student’s health to be the best it can be, we can empower them to perform in their studies. If you have concerns about your health or mental health, it makes it really hard to focus and impacts the relationships you have with others.”
“Our job is to help patients optimise everything as much as we can to make sure they can perform at their best.”
It’s a busy role he has stepped into – juggling not just seeing students, staff and members of the community as their GP, but also running the centre. Holding responsibilities for things like HR, budgets and making sure everything runs the way it should to deliver the best care.
He also pitches in to help shape the University’s bigger picture.
“We also have a role to play within the wider University where I help advise on health promotion, policy, and planning. So, I am sitting on a number of different committees,” he said.
Despite the demands of the role – there is one thing that Chris highlighted as being incredibly important from his very first day, and every day after.
“My job is to listen to students, listen to staff, listen to people in the centre,” he said.
“We need to see what opportunities we have and continue ensuring that our services meet the needs of our community.”
However, there are two services that he is already incredibly proud to be inheriting and continuing to support.
“Students can come here and see a psychiatrist for free, which is an incredibly rare service to offer – we’re one of the very few universities in the country that can offer this.”
“There’s also a weekly psychology class for UC students that covers all sorts of different themes requested by students, building a little community between the attendees, while also getting support from a really experienced qualified psychologist.”
Words by Georgie Burgess, photos by Chris Walsh.