# In Australian Professional/Academic Circles, What's A Registrar **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 21, 2019, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-australian-professional-academic-circles-whats-a-registrar/843780 "2019-11-21T16:19:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2019, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-australian-professional-academic-circles-whats-a-registrar/843780/1 "2019-11-21T16:19:04Z")
Been watching a show on Netflix that takes place in Australia. One of the characters, a man of about 30, worked as a doctor’s right-hand-man until the doctor died. The doctor, though he practiced, was equally focused on research and finding new therapies in his field as he was to simply practicing. From the context, it appears that the younger character is more of a researcher/academic than an actual physician, but I could be wrong. At the older doctor’s funeral, the younger man speaks of the doctor having mentored him ever since he (the younger man) was a “registrar.” Is that some sort of academic title, like a research fellow or graduate student? Or a professional one, akin to a medical resident or intern? ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2019, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-australian-professional-academic-circles-whats-a-registrar/843780/2 "2019-11-21T16:47:46Z")
I assume that Australia is the same as the UK. When a doctor has completed their foundation training, they choose a speciality (surgery, geriatrics, emergency, etc) and if they are accepted they become registrars. The next step up is consultant, so they are pretty senior in their department, but still training. I think that the US equivalent is “Attending physician”. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2019, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-australian-professional-academic-circles-whats-a-registrar/843780/3 "2019-11-21T16:49:40Z")
Okay, but what is that? Is a registrar like an intern among specialists? ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2019, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-australian-professional-academic-circles-whats-a-registrar/843780/4 "2019-11-21T16:57:28Z")
Before being a registrar, a junior doctor is a Jack of all trades. A registrar is taking the next step to becoming a specialist in their chosen field and will be mentored by a consultant. ---
**Author:** ![Anny\_Middon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc79bd/32.png) [@Anny\_Middon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anny_Middon)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2019, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-australian-professional-academic-circles-whats-a-registrar/843780/5 "2019-11-21T17:51:36Z")
My niece’s husband is doing his fellowship in orthopedic surgery. He has already completed his residency. Internship was a mix of disciplines, but his residency focused on orthopedic surgery. The fellowship is required before he can officially be an orthopedic surgeon. I’m thinking maybe “registrar” is somewhat like a combination of residency and fellowship. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2019, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-australian-professional-academic-circles-whats-a-registrar/843780/6 "2019-11-21T18:22:18Z")
I wouldn’t know what the US equivalent titles are, but in medical hierarchies in the UK (and I’d guess Australia too) “Registrar” is the next to top or second-in-command of a specialist clinical team, in the final stages of training for advanced specialist qualifications, maybe 7-10 years after completion of medical school. ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2019, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-australian-professional-academic-circles-whats-a-registrar/843780/7 "2019-11-21T22:16:25Z")
Not a doctor, but yes the medical colleges (specialisations) closely follow British practice and terminology. You’ve gone from being an intern into your field of specialisation but are still in a learning / supervised state, before you attain a god-like status of being a Fellow of the Royal College of Rocket Surgeons. There are also Registrar positions in the university hierarchy, which seems to be part of the confusion. That is the office that deals with student enrolment and registration. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2019, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-australian-professional-academic-circles-whats-a-registrar/843780/8 "2019-11-21T22:39:13Z")
Which means, historically, that the Registrar is no longer required to be Resident, but is the XO – because the next step up, the Consultant, isn’t required to be present. In the old English system, public hospitals provided free care, including walk-in ‘outpatient’ care. Consultants made their money from private practice, and provided free care to public hospitals. To earn a living they had to be seeing private patients, which meant they couldn’t always be at the public hospital during working hours. In the Aus system, specialist training takes longer than in the US system (the working hours are shorter), so don’t get too hung up on the number of years. Registrars are mid-level doctors, normally still in training: doing the work that the Interns and the Hospital Medical Officers can’t do, taking advice and direction from the Consultants, trying not to argue with the Fellows and the head of department. In principle, a register doesn’t have to be in training for a fellowship, but what are you going to do? Hire somebody who can’t or won’t make the next step? Or give a job to somebody in training who needs the money? In practice, registrars are generally in training, going to be in training, or have been in training, unless something is stuffed up, like a job nobody wants, in a hospital not accredited, because of funding problems, or because a registrar dropped out after a bi-polar episode. And what kind of person aspires to a mid-level job as a career? After completing fellowship training, a registrar leaves and somebody else gets the job. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2019, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-australian-professional-academic-circles-whats-a-registrar/843780/9 "2019-11-21T23:41:27Z")
Outside of medicine, a registrar maintains a register. We have an acquaintance who is a registrar of births marriages and deaths. In the old days, she wrote certificates and made a hand-written entry into the register. She also carries out civil marriages and deals with applications for citizenship. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2019, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-australian-professional-academic-circles-whats-a-registrar/843780/10 "2019-11-22T12:49:42Z")
University Registrars are the 2IC, just under and next to the vice-chancellor. The Chancellor is an honorary position. The Vice-Chancellor is in charge (of policy, decisions, lobbying, funding, cat herding and talking with people who need to be talked with). The Registrar is the person who, with the authority of the VC, makes sure that everyone gets paid, has pencils, and signs their time sheets. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2019, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-australian-professional-academic-circles-whats-a-registrar/843780/11 "2019-11-22T13:48:45Z")
For me, in US academics, the registrar is in charge of keeping track of the students: admission, who is enrolled for what program, maintaining the class registration system, when degree requirements have been met, etc. It’s interesting to see a word so familiar to me being used in such a different way elsewhere. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2019, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-australian-professional-academic-circles-whats-a-registrar/843780/12 "2019-11-22T15:05:44Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > For me, in US academics, the registrar is in charge of keeping track of the students: admission, who is enrolled for what program, maintaining the class registration system, when degree requirements have been met, etc. > > It’s interesting to see a word so familiar to me being used in such a different way elsewhere. Same here. I knew the character obviously didn’t maintain student enrollments at a university, but rather, sat in a medical practice surrounded by books. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2019, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-australian-professional-academic-circles-whats-a-registrar/843780/13 "2019-11-22T19:31:05Z")
I was myself an Assistant Registrar (i.e., dealing with student admin) in a university. I assume the overlap to a medical registrar is that, in the days when the consultant swept in and out in a godlike way, the registrar, being the topmost permanent doctor in the team, was the one who knew the patients and held the organisational memory - which is one of the functions of a university registrar in the other sense.