There has been an educational establishment in Cork for over 1,200 years. A recognized Medical School was established in Cork in the 18th century, variously dated between 1722 and 1775.

The first recorded lessons in subjects like Anatomy, Physiology and Surgery date back to 1828, when a Medical School was founded by Henry Augustus Caesar. The school would become officially recognised as Queen's College Cork in 1849.

Medicine was one of the three founding faculties along with Arts and Law. In 2004, the Faculty of Health Sciences launched a 120 million euro expansion with the development of new state-of-the-art facilities, including the Brookfield Health Sciences Complex, a Pharmacy building, and extended academic and research facilities. Today, University College Cork is the principal university in the province of Munster, and the largest outside Dublin. UCC has over 12,000 students and an academic staff of over 1700.

About The Medical School

An established feature of the medical education in Cork is small group, patient-centered teaching. Under the watchful guidance of highly qualified clinical lecturers, students are motivated to learn the skills of listening and communicating, history taking and clinical examination through applied curriculum, clinical interactions and experience.

Beginning in September 2008, University College Cork offers a graduate entry program which is four years in length. The graduate entry program is avaialable to candidates with an existing undergraduate degree.

The first two years are preclinical, in which there is an emphasis on the basic science subjects such as Anatomy, Biochemistry, and Physiology. During the last three years, students concentrate on Clinical Medicine and paraclinical subjects such as Pathology, Pharmacology, and Public Health Medicine. In these years, students spend most of their time in the affiliated hospitals.

Teaching Hospitals

The primary teaching hospital is Cork University Hospital. The majority of the core medical rotations are located in the hospital. The hospital provides a local general service and a specialist tertiary referral service. It is the major accident centre for the South of Ireland and forms the centre of a network of teaching hospitals.

Maternity hospitals, psychiatric hospitals, the Orthopedic Hospital and the Regional Blood Transfusion Centre are just some of the affiliate teaching hospitals that are in close proximity to Cork University Hospital. St. Finbarr's Hospital, for example, provides geriatric care. The Mercy Hospital provides bedside teaching in Medicine, Surgery, Clinical Pharmacology, and Child Health and Gynecology. The South Infirmary-Victoria Hospital provides general clinical teaching in the major specialties.

In addition to the Cork City teaching hospitals, the Faculty arranges satellite attachments in Limerick Regional Hospital, Mallow General Hospital and Tralee General Hospital.

university college cork www.ucc.ie
ucc faculty of medicine www.ucc.ie/en/CollegesandDepartments/MedicineandHealth