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The national consultation undertaken in this project – Learning and Teaching for Interprofessional Practice, Australia (L-TIPP, Aus) – revealed many examples of innovative and successful interprofessional education (IPE) initiatives developed across the Australian higher education sector. However, health and higher education stakeholders interviewed consistently told us that these initiatives tend to be local, developed in isolation, driven by and dependent on the concerted efforts of a few local ‘champions’, and existing on the margins of health professional curricula and health professional practice.
What these same stakeholders also told us, and what was confirmed by our review of the national and international literature, is that current approaches to IPE within the Australian higher education sector are neither sustainable, nor will they be successful in building a national health workforce that is equipped to utilise collaborative and team-based models to address contemporary health care challenges.
The national agenda identifies the need for development in four interrelated areas:

• informing and resourcing curriculum development
• embedding IPP as a core component of health professional practice standards and where appropriate, in registration and accreditation processes
• establishing and implementing a program of research to support and inform development
• establishing an IPE/IPL/IPP knowledge management system

This review is a product of The Learning & Teaching for Interprofessional Practice, Australia (L-TIPP, Aus) project.