This four-year medical programme, one of only two in Ireland, was open to graduates from any discipline and includes students with undergraduate degrees in areas as diverse as, Mechanical Engineering, Law, French and English, Computer Science and Arts. 

In welcoming UL’s first medical students on campus, Founding Director of the UL Graduate Medical School, Professor Paul Finucane said:

“Our first students will become pioneers of a new age in medical education in Ireland. The UL programme not only focuses on the basic sciences but also on areas like health law and ethics, health service organisation, the humanities in medicine, health psychology, public health medicine and health prevention to ultimately produce doctors that are fit for practice and more aware of the needs of society.”

The curriculum has three main modules: Knowledge of Health and Illness; Clinical Skills and Professional Competencies. Students this week have already received their first Problem Based Learning medical case involving a patient with hearing difficulties.

A new €16million medical school building at UL has been designed - situated on the University’s north campus, it is due for completion in 2009.