DOING THE ROUNDS
DOING THE ROUNDS NEWS, APPOINTMENTS AND CAMPUS UPDATES
RCSI AWARDED UNIVERSITY OF THE YEAR 2022 FOR STUDENT ENGAGEMENT
RCSI has been named University of the Year for Student Engagement in the new edition of The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2022. The award recognises RCSI’s top performance among higher education institutions in Ireland across the measures where data is available for student engagement. RCSI won the inaugural award primarily for its efforts to negate the impact of the pandemic on students. Initiatives to support students included the University’s simulation facilities being deployed to mimic a clinical setting
STUDENT ENGAGEMENT AT RCSI BAHRAIN
RCSI Bahrain has launched its Student Engagement and Partnership (StEP) programme. Co-developed by RCSI Bahrain students and staff, the programme aims to promote and implement a culture of partnership and inclusivity, where the expertise and perspectives of both staff and students are equally valued. The StEP programme is scaffolded around a framework of four domains: StEP in Institutional Management; StEP in the Academic Research Community; StEP in the Local Community and the Social Environment and StEP in Teaching and Assessment. Under each domain, key partnership projects will be led by students and staff who will work together to enhance student participation and enrich their journey. The StEP programme has more than 30 staff and students working on 17 different projects across the four domains. President of RCSI Bahrain, Professor Sameer Otoom commented: “RCSI Bahrain acknowledges the importance of student and staff collaboration to enhance the delivery of our educational programmes and our student support systems, improving our students’ overall experience and preparing them to become future leaders in healthcare.”
when access to ‘live’ clinical sites was restricted. A satellite campus was established at Croke Park to accommodate 650 students, ensuring essential face-to-face interaction required for training health professionals continued within a hybrid model of teaching. To connect students with each other, learning community ‘bubbles’ were established in consultation with the students union and class representatives. These allowed for small group teaching and safe lab access. To protect students, an on-campus RCSI screening centre was set up along with pop-up centres at teaching hospitals where over 9,000 swab tests were carried out in the first twelve months of the pandemic. Many students volunteered in intensive care units or became contract tracers. Examinations were brought forward by seven weeks in 2020 to allow early graduation for the University’s 300-plus medical students. Alastair McCall, editor of The Sunday Times Good University Guide, said: “The shadow campus at Croke Park was typical of the vision RCSI brought to bear on the pandemic, allowing students to study in as normal conditions as possible, while the opportunities to volunteer on the frontline both prevented student isolation and helped them engage directly with the pandemic through their chosen profession. This was higher education at its very best – of benefit to society and students alike.”
RCSI Results Day
The final results of over 300 medical students at RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences were delivered in a live reading on 17 May. In a tradition that has been running for more than 60 years, the final year results were read out from the stairs at the RCSI campus at St Stephen’s Green. Students gathered in person and via livestream to hear their results and celebrate as they embark on Fatemah Alshammari, Bibi Alsahaf their new career as doctors. The students were and Ayat Abul on Results Day. congratulated by Professor Hannah McGee, Deputy Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, and Professor Arnold Hill, Head of the RCSI School of Medicine, and RCSI Vice Chancellor and CEO, Professor Cathal Kelly.
WHITE COAT CEREMONIES
More than 770 students took part in White Coat Ceremonies in March. Students were invited by Professor P Ronan O’Connell, RCSI President, to make a commitment to professionalism that mirrors the graduates’ declaration recited at their conferring day. The declaration signals the responsibilities they must begin to undertake as future health professionals from the start of their academic training.
Daragh Browne and Jade Sleator
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