UCD School of Medicine

The UCD School of Medicine ("Scoil an Leighis UCD") at University College Dublin, Ireland, was founded in 1855. At undergraduate level the school offers programmes in Medicine MB BCh BAO (undergraduate and graduate entry), BSc Biomedical Health and Life Sciences, and the BSc Radiography. At graduate level the school UCD offers over 40 programmes for health care professionals.
History.
Founded in 1855, the Catholic University Medical School was originally located on Cecilia Street. In 1908 it became the medical faculty of UCD. After its first 75 years of existence, the medical school relocated to Earlsfort Terrace in the 1930s. In 2007 UCD completed a long anticipated move to a state-of-the-art teaching and research health sciences complex at UCD's Belfield campus. The Health Science building sits adjacent to the Conway Institute (a biomedical and biomolecular research centre), Ireland's Centre for Research in Infectious Diseases, and the Centre for Synthesis and Chemical Biology. The UCD National Virus Reference Laboratory is also located on the Belfield campus.
The University College Dublin degree in Radiography is the oldest in Europe with the first graduates being conferred in 1994. It is the only Diagnostic Imaging Programme in the Republic of Ireland.
Medical School Curriculum.
A pre-medicine year is completed by approximately 85% of undergraduate entry students. Thereafter, undergraduate entry medical students embark upon a three-year pre-clinical programme, followed by their final two years of clinical training in one of the affiliated teaching hospitals, either St. Vincent’s University Hospital or the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital. Graduate entry medical students study a 2-year-pre-clinical programme and study the final two years in the affiliated hospitals. Both graduate and undergraduate students complete specialist training rotations at The National Maternity Hospital, the Coombe Women & Infants University Hospital, Children's Health Ireland at Crumlin, and Children's Health Ireland at Temple Street. Upon graduation students are awarded bachelor's degrees in medicine, surgery and obstetrics.
In September 2005 there was a restructuring of the medical programme in the systems-based model, as part of a university wide implementation.
UCD has established connections with several prestigious North American institutions, allowing medical students to participate in funded electives at Harvard Medical School, Washington University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Toronto and the University of British Columbia. The medical school also has a twinning medical programme with the RCSI & UCD Malaysia Campus.
Admissions and Rankings.
In 2020, of the five medical schools offering medical degrees to undergraduates in the Republic of Ireland, UCD had the highest required CAO points to gain entry, at 737.
In the subject listed as "Medicine", the 2021 QS World University Rankings gave University College Dublin a ranking of 151–200. The US News 2021 "Best Global Universities for Clinical Medicine" rankings gave UCD a position of 247 among 749 schools scored.
Notable Alumni.
Notable alumni and former students include: