4 year MD programs in Ireland

[HussainGQ]

Hey, I remember seeing a post on here some time ago that said that the med schools in Ireland are going to be changing from their five yr program(for N.Americans) to a four year cirriculum sometime in the future. Does anybody here know if that is true,and if so when is it going to happen, and at which schools? Thanks

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[blueoval]

I saw the same thing somewhere and it said something like 2007 is when the first program would start, but I've slept since then.

 

[13538]

The Irish Government are planning on introducing a parallel 4-year graduate entry medical programme in 2006 or 2007. None of this has been finalised and it's far from being resolved. *If* a 4 year course does come to fruition...it'll probably be for EU students only. The medical schools in Ireland get huge negative press in the Irish media due to over half of all medical schools places being given to non-EU students. It's got to the point where you have to be in the top 2% of secondary school graduates to get into medical school in Ireland now! Campaigns are being targeted at the "inequality" of distribution of places between EU and non-EU medical students: http://www.medicalschoolentry.com/

The Government is mindful of this...so any changes in medical education will probably be targeted at Irish students as opposed to non-EU ones.

It is a very complex issue!

 

[Badkarma25]

I was made to understand by officials at school that north americans (non-EU) spots are allocated separately so that we don't take away from Irish kid's ability to get in. Plus there's no way half my class is non-EU. And I don't think they'd ever change anything anyway because our tuition euros are too valuable. Not that they seem to be doing anything worthwhile with them!

 

[leorl]

Yeah, unfortunately that misconception isn't really ever going to go away and the Irish students don't seem to understand that international students don't take spots away from them and we aren't competing with them for places. Perhaps in general, they should reduce the number of international students and thus reduce class sizes, or make more spots open for Irish students (50% is a bit high!). But as it stands, international students are funding 73% of Irish medical education expenses so getting by that will be tricky for them.

The first post-grad med ed program is meant to start in 2007, but don't really know if they're on a realistic time plan or not. At the moment, there seems to be a push for a 5-yr. curriculum (for everyone) instead of a 6 yr. one. But I know some people in science who entered science so they could take advantage of a post-grad course.

 

[13538]

There's a quota for EU students in Irish medical schools....so non-EU students don't compete directly with Irish/EU students. These quotas have been in place since 1980 and are totally inadequate to meet the medical manpower requirements of Irish hospitals in the 21st century! There's currently a campaign in Ireland (see my previous post) for the Government to fund more EU places so the medical school aren't as reliant on non-EU students for fees.

The admissions figures for 2003 show that of the 831 students admitted to Irish medical schools that year, 516 were from outside the EU! That?s 62%!!

There's currently a working group of the HEA (Higher Education Authority) looking at medical education in Ireland. For anyone that's really interested:
http://www.hea.ie/index.cfm/page/sub/id/881

Like I said, it's a complex political issue. The Government has to be seen to be investing money at the "coal-face" of the health service in hospitals and to reduce waiting lists, if it wants to win the next election. This is to the detriment of the chronically underfunded state of medical schools in Ireland! The Minister for Health announced last week, that a billion euros extra will be invested in the health service next year...the medical schools will see none of this!!!