Ninth Level Ireland

“Fewer college places in medicine will be available to the CAO applicants of 2021 because of the late offers made to students who sat the Leaving Cert 2020 exams last November. This week, almost 600 students from the class of 2020 received an offer for an honours degree course, based on grades they achieved in the November sitting …” (more)

[Katherine Donnelly, Independent, 13 February]

“Student doctors who put their lives on the line during the Covid pandemic are not getting a £2,000 bonus being given to other health service trainees. Last week, Health Minister Robin Swann announced that nurses in Northern Ireland are to receive a £500 ‘special recognition’ payment for their work during the pandemic, while some student nurses will get £2,000 …” (more)

[Lisa Smyth, Belfast Telegraph, 4 February]

“It’s been a debate rumbling on since the 1960s and has been subject to many slugger posts over the years. Including the lack of strategic thinking over the long-term viability for our health service. The post graduate entry medical school at Magee is set to take students in September this year (according to UU’s website at time of posting) but it has been blighted by delays and began as a project in the early noughties …” (more)

[Jay Burbank, Slugger O’Toole, 2 February]

“Ulster University has confirmed that the School of Health Sciences undergraduate programmes will relocate to its Magee campus in Derry from September 2022. The relocation will bring over 800 undergraduate students to the Magee campus …” (more)

[Derry Now, 2 February]

Young medical students will be among the contact tracers working over the holiday season to track a rapidly rising number of cases. There are 25 second- and third-year students at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland who have volunteered to work alongside HSE contact tracers …” (more)

[Niamh Griffin and Cianan Brennan, Irish Examiner, 23 December]

“Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance): To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the rationale for charging fees of over €15,000 per year for graduate entry medicine courses, which means that many students who finish the course leave university with loans of up to €100,000, and in turn results in emigration and exacerbates staff shortages in medicine; and if he will make a statement on the matter …” (more)

[Dáil written answers, 15 December]

“Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats): To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the instructions, guidelines or recommendations made to institutions participating in the graduate medical programmes to support and facilitate the participation of students from low socioeconomic backgrounds given SUSI is not available; and if he will make a statement on the matter …” (more)

[Dáil written answers, 8 December]

“Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) Council has voted in favour of a campaign to lobby the government to increase financial support for Graduate Entry Medicine students. Delegates from TCDSU who attend the Union of Students In Ireland (USI) National Council and USI Congress are to put forward motions at meetings of those bodies to establish a nationwide USI campaign to lower GEM tuition fees …” (more)

[Audrey Brown, Trinity News, 24 November]

“David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein): To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the training pathways, including third-level undergraduate and postgraduate pathways, currently in place for each of the medical professions; the numbers availing of these annually; the cost per person for each pathway; and if he will make a statement on the matter …” (more)

[Dáil written answers, 17 November]

“A company which recruited students from Saudi Arabia for the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland is suing the college in the High Court over the level of fees paid by the students. The Nahj Company for Services is in dispute with the college over whether the €16,000 fee for participation in the medical commencement programme was inclusive or exclusive of a €5,000 commission said to be payable to the recruiting company …” (more)

[Mary Carolan, Irish Times, 13 November]

“Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael): To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the interaction he has had with UCD over the 2% to 4% increase in fees for EU and non-EU students studying graduate entry medicine; and if he will make a statement on the matter …” (more)

[Dáil written answers, 10 November]

“More than 70% of Graduate Entry Medicine (GEM) students in University College, Dublin are withholding fees in protest over further fee increases and disruptions to learning due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Fees have increased year-on-year since 2017 for such students and now stand at €16,290 for Irish students and €55,140 for non-EU students, representing an increase of €1,000 and €3,000 respectively since 2017 …” (more)

[Jade Wilson, Irish Times, 31 October]

“Graduate Entry Medicine students have called on UCD to reduce tuition fees and are demanding a freeze on future increases. A majority of the current GEM class have elected to withhold fees in protest of these increases. The tuition fees currently stand at €16,290 for Irish students, and €55,140 for non-EU students …” (more)

[Mahnoor Choudhry, College Tribune, 27 October]

“In 2018, the Irish Medical Council gave Trinity’s School of Medicine two years to fix a ream of problems facing students on badly planned placements – in which students faced high stress in an under-supervised environment – before the council’s assessors returned to decide whether or not College should keep its accreditation …” (more)

[Cormac Watson and Molly Furey, University Times, 21 October]

“Controversy is brewing in the UCD School of Medicine as reports emerge that first years will be required to take a module taught by Professor Dolores Cahill, despite the lecturers controversial comments regarding the ongoing COVID pandemic …” (more)

[Jack McGee, College Tribune, 1 October]

“Trinity’s Schools of Medicine and Dentistry have said they will not be offering extra places for incoming freshers this year. Last week, the government announced 1250 additional CAO places for ‘high demand’ courses such as medicine, law, and engineering. Higher Education Minister Simon Harris today announced a further 800 places, following the announcement of the highest leaving certificate results in history on Monday …” (more)

[Emma Donohoe, University Times, 9 September]

“Medicine students on placement this year will have to buy their own surgical scrubs, rather than getting them from hospital dispensers as was previously the case …” (more)

[Sárán Fogarty, University Times, 26 August]

“Extra college places in Medicine and other hotly contested areas are on the agenda for discussion ahead of next month’s CAO Round 1 offers. Higher Education Minister Simon Harris confirmed today that more places are likely to open on some high demand university courses …” (more)

[Katherine Donnelly, Independent, 12 August]

“NUI Galway has challenged a finding in an interim report of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation that its medical school had received and paid for 35 infant remains from the Tuam mother and baby home. In its fifth interim report, published in April of last year, the commission found that between 1949 and 1964, Galway Medical School ‘received and paid for 35 infant anatomical subjects’ …” (more)

[Patsy McGarry, Irish Times, 30 July]

“Louise O’Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein): To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will work with third-level universities to expand the number of medical training places for students applying through the Central Applications Office system to help increase the number of doctors nationally …” (more)

[Dáil written answers, 30 June]