UCD School of Medicine

Founded in 1855, the Catholic University Medical School was originally located on Cecilia Street.[5] In 1908 it became the medical faculty of UCD.[1] After its first 75 years of existence, the medical school relocated to Earlsfort Terrace in the 1930s.[5] 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.[5] 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.[2]

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.

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.[2][6][7] Graduate entry medical students study a 2-year-pre-clinical programme and study the final two years in the affiliated hospitals.[2] 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.[2] 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.[8] The medical school also has a twinning medical programme with the RCSI & UCD Malaysia Campus.[9]

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.[10] In the subject listed as "Medicine", the 2021 QS World University Rankings gave University College Dublin a ranking of 151–200.[11] The US News 2022 "Best Global Universities for Clinical Medicine" rankings gave UCD a position of 258 among 1,000 schools scored.[12][13]

Notable alumni and former students include:

• Peter Boylan Obstetrician, former master of the National Maternity Hospital, Dublin[14]
• Hugh Brady President of UCD, President of Imperial College London
• Mark English 800 m bronze medalist at the 2014 European Athletics Championships[15]
• Michael Fitzsimons 8-time All-Ireland Senior Football Champion for Dublin[16]
• Noëlle Healy 4-time All-Ireland Senior Ladies' Football Champion[17]
• Tony Holohan Chief Medical Officer for Ireland[18]
• Maura Lynch Catholic nun, doctor, women's rights advocate, founding member of the Association of Surgeons in Uganda, North–South Prize recipient[19][20]
• Jack McCaffrey five-time All-Ireland Senior Football Champion for Dublin[16]
• Gerry McEntee two-time All-Ireland Senior Football Champion for Meath, Consultant Hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgeon at the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital[21]
• Eilis McGovern 168th President of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and first female President of any surgical Royal College in the world[22]
• Josh Murphy Leinster Rugby player[23][24]
• Seán Murphy three-time All-Ireland Senior Football Champion for Kerry
• Lucy O'Brien Missionary nun, medical doctor[25]
• Mona Tyndall medical doctor and missionary nun in Nigeria and Zambia

• School of Medicine