College of Medicine and Health Fund

Please click to donate to the Fund for the College of Medicine and Health

Head of College of Medicine and Health:

 Professor Michael Berndt

 Medical teaching began in Cork in the 18th century, variously dated between 1722 and 1775.  Organised teaching of Anatomy, Physiology, Medicine and Surgery is recorded since 1828 when a Medical School was founded by Henry Augustus Caesar MD, at The United Voluntary Hospitals.   Medicine was one of the three founding faculties along with Arts and Law when University College, Cork opened its doors to students in 1849 as Queen's College Cork. 

A School of Dentistry was established in 1913 adjoining the North Infirmary Hospital.   In 1982, it was relocated to the site of the new Regional Hospital at Wilton where modern facilities support the delivery of the BDS programme.  A major new development in Orthodontics commenced in 2003 which further enhances clinical care and develops the research capacity and academic excellence of the Dental School.

In 2002, 200 students were admitted to a new BSc Nursing programme, following the transfer of Nursing Education from Cork University Hospital, Mercy University Hospital, South Infirmary Victoria Hospital and the Bon Secours Hospitals to University College Cork.   This programme is one of the largest in Ireland, with a wide range of post-graduate specialist degrees and diplomas.

2003 also saw the admission of the first students to new degree programmes, in Occupational Therapy, Speech and Language Therapy, and Pharmacy.

The Medical, Dental, Nursing, Pharmacy and Clinical Therapies schools, that currently comprise the UCC College of Medicine and Health, are all large enough to provide up-to-date teaching facilities and yet small enough to be friendly and personally welcoming.   The College of Medicine & Health is an exciting place in which to work and learn, not just because of the quality and variety of the teaching, but also because of the world class research that is going on in various departments within the College of Medicine & Health. 

To accommodate the College of Medicine & Health, which is trebling in size to over 2,000 undergraduate students, UCC  embarked on an ambitious €120m capital building programme that includes the Brookfield Health Sciences Complex, a Pharmacy building, a phase two Medical Building and an academic research unit in Obstetrics and Gynaecology to complement a major new obstetrics hospital at Cork University Hospital.   The Brookfield Complex and the Pharmacy building are only a few minutes walk apart.   Together they provide a modern, integrated teaching facility at UCC where students from different health professions learn respect for each others' roles through innovative curriculum developments designed to produce health professionals who will serve the public as effective members of health care teams.

These developments are bringing a richness and diversity to one of the founding faculties of UCC and create a complex of fine new buildings at the western end of the campus to the benefit of the College and the University as a whole. 

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If you have questions which have not been answered on this site please contact Karen Kelly on:

 +353 (0) 21 490 3643 or k.kelly@ucc.ie