International student interest ‘remained strong’ despite pandemic – RCSI

Interest among international students who want to attend the RCSI has remained “strong” in recent months, despite the global Covid-19 pandemic and resulting restrictions on travel, the College has told this newspaper.

However, the RCSI was not in position to provide figures for the number of non-EU students expected to attend the new courses beginning this month (September).

“The RCSI continues to be a very popular university for international students who want to study medicine and health sciences and international interest in coming to study at the RCSI has remained strong in the past few months since Covid-19 challenges began,” a College spokesperson told the Medical Independent (MI).

“Our application numbers indicate that most applicants for health professional courses want to continue with their career plans, despite Covid-19.

“We have maintained very regular contact with applicants; continually dealing with their and their family concerns and providing information on how their programme will be delivered.

“However, we won’t know the final number of non-EU students joining us for the academic year 2020/21 until the various programmes commence from September onwards.”

In terms of changes to how teaching will take place in the new academic year the spokesperson told MI, “health professional degree programmes such as those delivered by the RCSI – medicine, pharmacy and physiotherapy – cannot be delivered online.”

“They require students to learn laboratory and other techniques and students must also develop patient engagement and assessment skills from early in their programmes. This prepares students for success in the more intense clinical training later in their programmes.

“Teaching may be different next year, with smaller class sizes and blended delivery, but we will ensure that the same learning outcomes will be delivered to all of our students.”