Irish and Malaysian universities strengthen ties

University College Cork (UCC) and National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG) have signed a co-operation agreement with Alliance College of Medical Sciences (ACMS) in Malaysia.

The agreement provides the legal framework for a new joint medical programme between UCC/NUIG and ACMS, which will see about 120 Malaysian and other Southeast Asian students studying medicine in Cork and Galway for 2½ years before completing their degree in Malaysia in the final 2½ years. Hospital based clinical education will take place in Malaysia. Graduates will be awarded the NUI degree of MB, BAO, BCh, and the first students will be admitted in September 2009.

The initiative shifts the clinical training of the students to their home country where they will develop their clinical skills and knowledge in the context of their own culture, traditions and health needs. However, they will still obtain an Irish medical qualification that will be approved and accredited by the professional accrediting authorities of Ireland and Malaysia.

The agreement follows years of close links between Ireland and Malaysia, such as the 2001 Memorandum of Understanding between the Irish and Malaysian Ministries of Education, and the 2003 conferral of an honorary degree on the King of Malaysia by UCC. In 1998, Penang Medical College in Malaysia was set up in partnership with University College Dublin and the Royal College of Surgeons. Malaysian students have been studying Medicine, Commerce, and Engineering in Ireland since the 1950s, and it is estimated that three to four thousand Malaysian doctors hold Irish medical qualifications.