Ninth Level Ireland

“It has been an argument raging on for 50 years, it briefly united Unionist and Nationalist elected reps in a period of violent division but it has yet to be resolved; a University for our second city. When the Stormont government attempted to shutdown the Magee University College (as it then was) campus and divert its resources to the New Ulster University in Coleraine which was recommended by the Lockwood Report …” (more)

[Jay Burbank, Slugger O’Toole, 28 November]

“Sinn Féin MP Elisha McCallion has said the Department of Health needs to complete its business case for the medical school in Derry as soon as possible. The Foyle MP said: ‘I met today with the permanent secretary of the Department of Health, Richard Pengelly, and discussed progress on delivering a medical school for Derry …'” (more)

[Sinn Féin, 14 August]

“Mayor of Derry and Strabane Colr. Michaela Boyle, has called on party leaders in Northern Ireland to pledge their strong support to the campaign to get Derry’s medical school over the line. Mayor Boyle was speaking following last week’s cross-party meeting in the Guildhall to discuss growing concern over the fact that the doctor training facility Ulster University plans to open in Derry has not yet been signed off …” (more)

[Brendan McDaid, Derry Journal, 21 June]

“The spectre of the dead infants once confined in so-called Mother and Baby Homes is raising haunting questions for Irish universities. An entire chapter of the recently published fifth interim report of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation is devoted to the burial of ‘anatomical subjects’, infant dead bodies transferred to universities for dissection and anatomical study …” (more)

[Órla O’Donovan, EchoLive, 26 April]

“Sinn Féin MP Elisha McCallion has said there is an urgent need for approval for a medical school to be established at Magee. The Foyle MP said: ‘The latest report from the Auditor General details the amount spent on locum doctors highlights the shortage of doctors and the need for more to be trained …'” (more)

[Sinn Féin, 9 April]

“It’s been confirmed that the opening of the Medical School at the Magee Campus in Derry has been put back by at least a year. It had been hoped that it could open in 2019, but that will not now happen, with one former Stormont Minister saying this is a direct consequence of the current political stalemate …” (more)

[Highland News, 10 November]

“The planned medical school at Magee is too crucial to allow it to be delayed or frustrated any further, Sinn Féin MP Elisha McCallion has said. The Foyle MP was commenting after Ulster University Vice-Chancellor Paddy Nixon warned that it would not be in place in time for the 2019 academic year …” (more)

[Sinn Féin, 8 November]

“A planned medical school at Ulster University’s campus in Londonderry has been shelved because there are no ministers in Stormont. The first intake of 60 students at the Graduate Entry Medical School at Magee Campus had been scheduled for 2019 – but the future of a medical school any time in the future is now in doubt …” (more)

[Donna Deeney, Belfast Telegraph, 19 October]

“There are calls for cross-party support to ensure the planned medical school for Derry remains on track. Local Councillor Mickey Cooper is to put forward a motion this week calling for Derry City and Strabane District Council to raise the matter with the head of the Department of Health …” (more)

[Highland Radio, 22 January]

“The North’s Civil Service has told the proposed Derry Medical School must not be delayed because of the political deadlock at Stormont. Following correspondence from the University of Ulster regarding the business case for the school, Foyle MLA Mark H Durkan, the SDLP’s Health and Wellbeing Spokesperson. says it would be ‘lamentable’ if the plans are stalled because there is no Executive in place …” (more)

[Highland Radio, 30 December]

“Fianna Fáil TD Michael McGrath has accused University College Cork (UCC) of using non-EU medicine students as a ‘cash cow’ while Irish students are left without places. Non-EU students are liable for higher fees than EU students, and in recent years UCC has both increased their fees and taken in more of them …” (more)

[David Linnane, Evening Echo, 12 April]

“Gardai are contacting Dublin’s university medical schools to try to track down the internal organs missing from the exhumed body of a woman they suspect may have been murdered 20 years ago …” (more)

[Maeve Sheehan, Independent, 5 October]

“A proposed law that would allow the privately-run Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) to call itself a university has sparked controversy …” (more)

[Katherine Donnelly, Independent, 1 July]

“The total cost of a medical graduate is estimated to be in the region of €80,000 to €100,000, the Department of Education and Skills has said. Most undergraduate students pay a student contribution …” (more)

[Gary Culliton, Irish Medical Times, 27 June]

“The University of Limerick (UL) has pointed to Government pay scales for medical consultants as the reason the head of its graduate entry medical school (GEMS) is one of the best paid academics in the State …” (more)

[Gordon Deegan, Irish Times, 22 November]

“A university has blamed government pay scales for why the head of its medical school is one of the best paid academics in the country. The University of Limerick (UL) is recruiting a new head of the Graduate Entry Medical School …” (more)

[Gordon Deegan, Independent, 22 November]

“The new head of a medical school in the University of Limerick will earn about €40,000 more than the college president. The salary for the head of UL’s Graduate Entry Medical School (GEMS) could top €241,000 …” (more)

[Gordon Deegan, Irish Examiner, 22 November]

“The cost of educating a doctor over six years in college was revealed last night as a massive €150,000 – with the taxpayer picking up most of the tab …” (more)

[Independent, 2 November]

“One hundred years after the publication of a report that helped determine the direction of medical education in the United States and Canada, the journal Academic Medicine has released a special issue examining how doctors are being educated at a time when proposed changes in health-care delivery are once again in the national spotlight …” (more)

[Katherine Mangan, Chronicle of Higher Education, 27 January]