Two Irish Universities sign Medical Agreement
The presidents of UCC and NUI Galway have signed a Co-operation Agreement with the Allianze College of Medical Sciences in Malaysia.
The Agreement, signed on January 22, will provide the legal basis for a medical education programme for Malaysian and other South East Asian students, leading to the medical degree of MB, BAO, BCh from the National University of Ireland.
NUI Galway and University College Cork will, between them, admit 120 students per year and teach them in Ireland for the first two and a half years of the five year programme.
The students will then return to Malaysia where ACMS, with the help of Irish and Malaysian professors and Malaysian clinical teachers working in Malaysian hospitals, will deliver the two and a half clinical years of the programme.
The Agreement provides for 15 annual intakes of students that can be extended into the future, as well as for the possibility of jointly developing similar twinning programmes for other health professions.
Both universities have been educating Malaysian medical students for 20 years but this is their first venture in a medical education partnership with a private Malaysian partner. It is a logical development in helping Malaysia to train and educate sufficient doctors to meet its own needs.
For Malaysia and other South East Asian countries, it means that their young doctors will complete their clinical training in their own culture and among their own people, attuned to the particular health needs of that part of the world.
For NUI Galway and UCC, it means that they can engage in international medical education without placing further strain on the facilities of the Irish health services. It also allows the two medical schools to develop strategic partnerships with a non-EU country - Malaysia - with which Ireland has long and mutually beneficial links.
The programme has the support of the Malaysian and Irish governments and arose from a visit of the King of Malaysia to Ireland in 2003 when he was awarded an honorary degree by UCC and a follow up visit from the Crown Prince of Perlis in 2005.
It is hoped that the first students will be admitted to NUI Galway and UCC in September 2009. (Source: UCC)