Berne became the first woman to study medicine in Australia, against the protests of the Dean of Medicine, Professor Anderson Stuart, who was one of several senior staff at the university who internally questioned the admission of female students, despite outwardly accepting it. She had a successful first year of medicine, gaining honours across the board in anatomy, botany, chemistry and zoology, a very strong academic result. However, during her second year of study was under Professor Stuart, and she could not achieve the same results as her first year of study; indeed she did not pass another examination. Some writers have suggested that Stuart deliberately failed Berne or gave her lower marks because he did not want a woman to graduate in medicine out of prejudice, citing the results of some of Berne's fellow male students, who received greatly lower marks than her in first year but still managed to pass second and later years above her. However others have suggested that despite immense dedication, Berne struggled to keep up with the other students at this level due to her lack of access to secondary education in science subjects.