bhiggins@dailyadvertiser.com.auNOTRE Dame University Australia will establish a new rural medicine school in Wagga.In a partnership with Calvary Hospital, the school will further enhance the city's position as a leading health training centre, with students expected to start in 2011.Notre Dame was established in Western Australia in 1990 and will expand into regional NSW and Victoria with sub-schools being set up in Wagga, Lithgow and Ballarat.The university has been working with the Little Company of Mary Health Care and saw Wagga as the perfect place to expose students to working in regional areas.The school would become the second training school in the city after the University of NSW set up the School of Rural Health, based at the Wagga Base Hospital, while Charles Sturt University also has several health courses.Associate Professor Victor Nossar said rural medicine was an important element in a degree."Doctors in regional areas are in desperate need and sending students out to Wagga will give them a sense of what it means to work in the country," he said."A partnership with Calvary Hospital would be unique in its ability to provide high-quality training to students in a rural setting, which would hopefully see them stay in the area to practice."There is still a lot of work to do but students are now in course, having just finished their second year."Calvary Hospital CEO Jo Williams was unavailable yesterday to comment on the proposed partnership.Notre Dame is a independent Roman Catholic University that provides "university education within a context of Catholic faith and values".