The Northern Territory’s latest crop of 15 graduating doctors, including three Indigenous graduates – two of them brothers from Alice Springs – has been urged to emulate the best medical practitioners in Australia at a graduation ceremony in Darwin Convention Centre this week.

Flinders University Vice-Chancellor Professor Colin Stirling told the group he was confident they could follow in the footsteps of Flinders graduates of the calibre of Northern Territory Junior Doctor of the Year Tessa Finney-Brown.

“I am entirely sincere when I say that I believe that many of you who are receiving your degrees today have the capacity and the ability to emulate, or even to exceed, the level of these achievements,” Professor Stirling told the group.

The three Indigenous students – Alice Springs brothers Rury Liddle and Riagan Liddle-Stewart, and Kylie Parry – are the largest Indigenous cohort since the NT Medical Program began in 2011. With the inclusion of a fourth Indigenous student, expected to complete their studies on December 31, it will bring the total number to seven. Other graduates to finish this year were Bernadette de Zylva, Lisa Waters, Jessica Lopes, Yu Chih Sun, Farhan Ali Khan, Rushab Shah, Aaron Miles, Hayley Dargan, Nikhil Kundu, Katrina Bolton and Claire Chandler.

Flinders Chancellor Stephen Gerlach joined Professor Stirling in celebrating the students’ achievements along with their families and friends in Darwin.

“We celebrate your educational achievements not only for the benefits they confer to you as individuals, but for advancing our society as a whole,” said Professor Stirling.