School of Medicine
As the new Head of School of Medicine I am delighted to welcome you to our website. I hope you find all of the information you are seeking about our medical school here. RCSI Bahrain is a brand new medical university in the Gulf region and the medical school first opened in October 2004. We were delighted to reach a major milestone in our short history when our first group of students graduated in June 2010.
RCSI Bahrain is a constituent university of RCSI Dublin which was first established over two centuries ago in 1784. The role of our university, like RCSI Dublin, is to deliver healthcare education to the highest international standards.
The university is committed to excellence in teaching, research and community engagement which represent the three strategic pillars in our Strategic Plan 2012-17. Our medical curriculum is delivered within a 6-year program which begins with Foundation Year and followed by 4 cycles.
We also have a 5-year program (4 cycles) for appropriately qualified entry students.
We also have a Medical Commencement Program for students who may not yet be ready for the RCSI Bahrain learning style. The medical curriculum is benchmarked against World Federation of Medical Education (WFME) standards. The curriculum is the same as that delivered in RCSI Dublin and students sit the same examinations at the same time as their counterparts in Dublin.
Our undergraduate program here in Bahrain, particularly in the important clinical years, is quite unique in my opinion because we have an excellent staff student ratio. However, students are exposed to patients throughout the undergraduate program and we emphasize early clinical exposure.
On successful completion of the medical course and examinations graduates are awarded the degree MB BCh BAO from both the National University of Ireland (NUI) and RCSI Bahrain and in addition are made Licentiates of The Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (RCPI) and The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI). While most of our undergraduates are from Bahrain and the Gulf region we have students from over 20 countries representing in excess of 30 nationalities.
Our medical school is truly international and multicultural. In addition, most of our senior medical teaching faculty members are from Ireland since we strive to deliver the authentic world respected brand of RCSI healthcare teaching.
I sincerely hope you enjoy browsing through our website. Check and see what our students are saying about us. Then think seriously about joining us as an undergraduate at this exciting new medical school.
Professor Joe McMenamin MD
Head of School of Medicine