Medicine - Undergraduate Entry

MATURE ENTRY MEDICINE - RC001
RCSI welcomes applications from Mature Entry applicants. Mature applicants must be 23 years of age on or before 1 January in the year of admission and meet matriculation requirements (Irish Leaving Certificate or equivalent accredited QQI Level 6 Access to Science Programme).

Applicants presenting the Irish Leaving Certificate must present a minimum of six recognised Irish Leaving Certificate subjects to include Irish*, English, Mathematics, another language, one laboratory science (Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Physics / Chemistry or Agricultural Science) and one other recognised subject. Six-year medical programme applicants must present a minimum H5 grade in two subjects and a minimum O6 / H7 grade in the remaining four subjects.

*Unless applicant is in possession of a valid NUI exemption

Applicants presenting the minimum subjects for the six-year medical programme with Chemistry (H4 grade) and another laboratory science (must be Physics or Biology H4 grade) will be eligible to enter the five-year medical programme. Mature Entry applicants often present a third-level qualification but this is not an essential requirement for consideration.

The aim of the Mature Entry Pathway is to widen access and provide an opportunity for individuals who may not otherwise find it possible to join a medical programme. The Mature Entry Pathway attempts to select students in a holistic manner and focuses on life experience, such as volunteer work or relevant work experience, in addition to the candidate’s academic background.

Mature Entry applicants must present HPAT and apply online to CAO on cao.ie

HPAT scores assist in the selection of a large number of Mature Entry applicants. RCSI will review applicants’ HPAT scores to shortlist and invite competitive Mature Entry applicants to submit a CV, personal statement and references supporting their application directly to RCSI.

There is no minimum HPAT score cut-off; the minimum HPAT score is determined each year by the group of Mature Entry RC001 applicants who apply. Once a Mature Entry applicant has been invited to submit their documents, the shortlisting for interviews commences.

Shortlisted candidates are called for a structured interview, which takes place in May each year.

HPAT scores are valid for one year only and must be presented in the same year of admission.

https://www.qualifax.ie/resources/student-supports

https://www.qualifax.ie/resources/student-supports

https://www.qualifax.ie/resources/recognition-of-prior-learning

Fees & Funding

Entry 2024

Early online application (discounted): Fee €30 Closing Date: 20 January 2024 at 5pm

Normal online application: Fee €45 Closing Date: 1 February 2024 at 5pm

Late online application - restrictions apply (see page 3 2024 CAO Handbook): Fee: €60 Closing Date: 1 May 2024 at 5pm

Change of Mind - restrictions apply (see page 3 2024 CAO Handbook): Fee: Nil Closing Date: 1 July 2024 at 5pm

Exceptional online late application (see page 34 of the 2024 CAO Handbook): Fee €60 Closing Date: 22 July 2024 at 5pm

Be sure to complete any action well in advance of closing dates. You should avoid making an application close to a closing date. No extensions to closing dates will be allowed and all application fees are non-refundable.

LATE APPLICATIONS
Late Applications are those which are received after 5pm on 1 February 2024. The closing date for late applications is 5pm on 1 May 2024, subject to the restrictions listed on page 3 of the 2024 CAO Handbook. The online facility for late applications opens on the 5 March 2024 at 12:00 noon - a fee of €60 applies.

Exceptional Late Applications (Exception to the timetable)
The exceptional closing date of 22 July at 5pm applies only to applicants who are registered as an undergraduate student on 1 May 2024 in any year in any one of the participating HEIs (subject to the exclusions listed below). In order to avail of the Exceptional Late Application facility you must have entered the HEI through the CAO system. This is an exceptional late closing date and all steps must be completed by 5pm on 22 July. No changes may be made after this date.

If you did not enter your current course through the CAO system, you must first contact the Admissions Office of the HEI to which you wish to apply and they will inform you if you may submit an application direct to the institution.

Exclusions:
You may submit a late application only for entry to courses other than your existing course. If you wish to repeat the year in the same course you must arrange this within your HEI.

Mary Immaculate College Limerick, Marino Institute of Education, Trinity College Dublin, University of Limerick and Maynooth University have special procedures in place in the case of current or previous students who wish to apply for entry to another course in the same HEI. Such applicants must contact their Admissions Office to determine the application procedure. However, if you are a student in another HEI and you wish to apply to any of these five HEIs, you should apply through CAO.

Refer to page 34 of the 2024 CAO Handbook on how to make an Exceptional Late Application.

Restrictions
As a CAO applicant you may experience one or more of the following restrictions based on your course choices, your category of application, or restrictions imposed by the HEIs that you wish to apply to. Please read the section on 'Restrictions' on page 3 of the 2024 CAO Handbook carefully. This section includes information on:

General Restrictions
1. Making a late application
2. Making changes to your course choices

Restricted Courses
3. Applying for a restricted course

Mature Applicants
4. Mature applicants

Supplementary Admissions Routes
5. Applying for DARE and/or HEAR

Award: MB, BCh, BAO (NUI & RCSI) LRCPI & LRCSI
Awarding Body: National University of Ireland

AT RCSI, WE AIM TO GRADUATE TRULY INTERNATIONAL HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS. THIS IS WHY WE WORK TO ENSURE THAT OUR CURRICULUM EQUIPS STUDENTS TO RESPOND TO THE FUTURE OF HEALTHCARE IN AN INCREASINGLY GLOBAL, DIGITAL AND CLIMATEFOCUSED WORLD.

With this in mind, RCSI’s Medicine curriculum is innovative, future-focused and integrated. Our programme is centred around our students and is delivered in our state-of-the-art healthcare education facilities in Dublin.

During your time with us you will be taught by RCSI academics, clinicians and researchers primarily in small groups or in an interactive manner when you are in large group settings. Your whole academic journey will be enabled and tracked by a dedicated e-portfolio system.

The medicine programme is structured so that the focus is on knowledge and excellent clinical skills development. From day one, we also put intensive focus on the acquisition of clinical and communications skills, as well as understanding the central tenets of Personal and Professional Identity formation: professionalism, resilience and leadership. This ensures that you will be prepared for a personally and professionally demanding career in tomorrow’s healthcare environment.

Case-Based Learning (CBL) is a core teaching and learning approach in Year 1 and 2. You will work in groups of approximately 12 students with a facilitator. You will also have the opportunity to choose from a wide range of tailored and credit-bearing student choice topics. These will allow for experiences that facilitate your personal growth.

Each medicine student is assigned a Personal Tutor who will support them through their time in RCSI. The Personal Tutor Programme is intended to: provide students with a safe space for informed reflection on academic, personal & professional performance; assist students by ensuring they have the relevant supports (academic; wellbeing etc.); provide resource and referral information to enable the student to move towards improvement, and encourage students to establish habits of continuous reflection, goal-setting and lifelong learning.

Knowing how students are progressing at any point during the academic year is very important. Personalised Student Feedback will help you to remain on course to achieving your educational objectives. Our curriculum is supported by a new and innovative technology platform that will provide you with feedback on assessments, CBL and other learning activities. The same platform will contribute to and support the Personal Tutor component.

Students are evaluated using Programmatic Assessment and the application of a Grade Point Average (GPA) scale. This approach provides multiple opportunities for measurement – coupled with ongoing feedback during the learning process. It reduces emphasis on end-of-semester/year high-stakes assessment and provides a range of different assessment types which facilitate the measurement of competencies.

Programmatic Assessment also places emphasis on the student’s role in taking responsibility for their own learning, and identifying and remediating areas where necessary. There is proportional assessment, based on the number of credits attaching to a module, which avoids duplication and over-assessment. It also permits data from multiple sources, using different standards that can be aggregated (across modules, pillars, years and the overall programme).

From your first day at RCSI, you will be placed in one of six Learning Communities, which comprise groups of students who are actively engaged in learning with and from each other. These communities have a cohort of students from every year in your programme and are an integral part of our teaching philosophy in the education of future healthcare professionals.

The Learning Communities will allow you to build an academic relationship with your peers and to support each other in your learning. Together you will practice case-based learning, clinical skills, practical skills, anatomy practicals, laboratory practicals and other small group teaching activities such as Clinical Microbiological Cases, Clinical Pathological Cases and integrated casebased workshops.

Learning Communities are aligned to academic learning and teaching activities, and will have the capacity to organise extracurricular events that contribute to the educational and social experience at RCSI. You will also be part of a broader inter-professional learning community made up of Medicine, Pharmacy and Physiotherapy students which facilitates participation in specific inter-professional academic activities.

At RCSI, our curriculum is informed by principles of positive education. This combines the science of positive psychology with curriculum development, delivery and assessment. As part of the core curriculum, students are taught skills and behaviours that encourage them to prioritise their health and wellbeing thus supporting their capacity to flourish. This approach to learning actively promotes positive growth, resilience and wellbeing.

Please note: RCSI’s undergraduate medicine programme is five years in duration. Depending on the qualifications presented at application, some students are required to complete an additional Foundation Year (six-year track). This is outlined in further detail in the ‘Admissions Essentials’ section. The five-year programme is structured as follows: Foundation of Practice (Y1 & Y2); Integration into Practice (Y3), and Preparation for Practice (Y4 & Y5). The programme has three vertical pillars of learning: Knowledge (Head); Skills (Hands), and; Personal & Professional Identity (Heart).

FOUNDATION YEAR
Foundation Year (FY) consists of two semesters, delivered from September to May.

FY will provide you with a solid grounding in the biomedical sciences, communication and professionalism, as well as the necessary it skills to operate efficiently within the university’s virtual learning environment (vle).

The course is delivered as a series of standalone modules taught in a single semester. There are also integrated, systems-based modules, delivered across both semesters.

FIRST SEMESTER
Fundamentals of Medical Physics
Fundamentals of Medicinal and Pharmaceutical Chemistry
Fundamentals of Human Biology

SECOND SEMESTER
Disease Diagnostics and Therapeutics
Medicinal and Pharmaceutical Chemistry

FIRST AND SECOND SEMESTERS
Musculoskeletal System, Nervous System, Skin, Special Senses, Reproduction and Endocrine Systems
Cardiovascular, Respiratory, Immune, Gastrointestinal and Excretory Systems
Professionalism in the Health Sciences
Biomedical Laboratory Sciences

YEAR 1
In Year 1, you will learn the basic anatomical, molecular and biochemical bases of human life, the principles of pharmacology, microbiology, pathology, and acquire a basic understanding of the epidemiology and mechanisms of disease. You will also learn about musculoskeletal and skin systems, and how to diagnose and manage common and important cardiovascular and respiratory disease.

Student choice modules will facilitate your exposure to various social and environmental experiences that will enable personal growth and the formation of your professional identity.

Case Based Learning (CBL) is a teaching tool used throughout Year 1. This is a learner-centred approach that involves interaction between the participants (up to 12). It focuses on the building of knowledge through group work.

CBL encourages the application of basic science knowledge, the linkage of knowledge between the basic and clinical sciences, a deeper understanding of content, and the development of clinical reasoning skills.

FIRST SEMESTER
Foundations for Practice 1
The Body: Movement and Function

SECOND SEMESTER
Foundations for Practice 2
Cardiovascular System
Student Choice
Respiratory System

YEAR 2
Through an integrated teaching and learning approach, Year 2 modules are focused on ensuring that you will gain the necessary knowledge and skills to communicate effectively and to work professionally and collaboratively to diagnose and manage common and important Gastrointestinal & Hepatological, Central Nervous System, Endocrine & Breast, Renal and Male & Female Genito-Urinary diseases.

You will use an evidence-based approach that is grounded in best practice and safe patient care. Student Choice will continue to be integrated and students will have continuing opportunities to explore areas of interest such as innovation in research, education, global health, health systems and translational medicine.

THE 'PREPARATION FOR CLINICAL PLACEMENT' MODULE WILL TEACH YOU HOW TO NAVIGATE THE HOSPITAL ENVIRONMENT PRIOR TO CLINICAL PLACEMENTS IN YEAR 3.

FIRST SEMESTER
Gastrointestinal
Student Choice
Central Nervous System

SECOND SEMESTER
Endocrine & Breast
Renal System
Student Choice
Preparation for Clinical Attachment

In Year 2 you may have the opportunity to participate in the Student Exchange Programme for a single semester or a full academic year at RCSI Bahrain.

YEAR 3
During this year, your class will be split up and you will undertake prescribed modules at different times throughout the year. You will participate in hospitalbased clinical placements and will be located in one of the RCSI-affiliated teaching hospitals throughout Ireland.

You will build on the knowledge and understanding of normal biology and diseases acquired during Years 1 and 2 and have the opportunity to apply this knowledge to real patients in multidisciplinary clinical settings.

THE NEW HORIZONS AND SIMULATION MODULE WILL PROVIDE YOU WITH A FRAMEWORK TO INTERACT AND ENGAGE WITH A VARIETY OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES THAT ARE BEING TRANSLATED FROM RESEARCH TO THE CLINICAL DOMAIN, INCLUDING GENOMICS AND NOVEL IMAGING APPROACHES.

You will also participate in a Student Selected Component, where you complete an individual research or audit project. Students will also have options relating to research projects overseas

FIRST & SECOND SEMESTER
New Horizons and Simulation
Student Selected Project
Clinical Medicine and Surgery Teaching
Clinical Attachment Academy (x2)

YEAR 4
Year 4 modules will provide you with wide-ranging clinical exposure running in parallel with an integrated teaching and learning programme that focuses on knowledge and skills in areas including clinical competence, professionalism, communication, scholarship, leadership and global outlook.

You will be anchored full-time within a clinical team at an RCSI Teaching Hospital working in Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Psychiatry, Surgery, Paediatrics, Child Health and General Practice.

YOU WILL HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO PRACTICE YOUR CLINICAL SKILLS AND TAKE AN ACTIVE PART IN THE CARE PATHWAYS OF INDIVIDUAL PATIENTS, WHILE SIMULTANEOUSLY GAINING EXPERIENCE IN MULTI-DISCIPLINARY FRAMEWORKS IN BOTH HOSPITALS AND COMMUNITY SETTINGS.

FIRST & SECOND SEMESTER
Obstetrics and Gynaecology
Paediatrics
Psychiatry
General Practice
Medicine and Surgery

YEAR 5
Year 5 will represent your final stage of preparation towards becoming a working clinician.

The clinical attachment block in Year 5 is the final mandatory clinical placement at an RCSI Teaching Hospital.

CLINICAL CLERKSHIP MODULES CAN BE COMPLETED IN ANY CLINICAL DISCIPLINE, ALTHOUGH AT LEAST ONE OF THE TWO CLERKSHIP BLOCKS MUST BE COMPLETED IN AN ACUTE HOSPITAL IN THE FORM OF A SUB-INTERNSHIP. THERE ARE ALSO STUDENT ELECTIVE OPTIONS AVAILABLE OUTSIDE IRELAND.

The Preparation for Intern Practice module will allow you to demonstrate your ability to communicate effectively and professionally, as well developing your skills to manage challenging clinical scenarios and critical incidents through the application of leadership, professionalism, and resilience.

FIRST & SECOND SEMESTER
Medicine
Surgery
Elective
Clinical Attachment
Preparation for Intern Practice

RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences
Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland
123 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, D02 YN77, Ireland
Tel +353 1 402 2228
Email admissions@rcsi.com
rcsi.com/dublin

International Students