Nov 25 2021
RCSI & UCD Malaysia Campus (RUMC) held its 22nd conferring ceremony last Sunday, 5 June 2022 – its first physical one after Malaysia moved into the endemic phase. After two years of conducting graduation ceremonies virtually, 92 doctors from the Class of 2022 doctors took their oaths and received their National University of Ireland (NUI) medical degrees.
This year, the ceremony was graced by the presence of the Guest of Honours, Her Excellency Hilary Reily, Irish Ambassador to Malaysia and YBhg. Datin Azizah Binti Ab Manan, Timbalan Pengarah (Kesihatan Awam) who were also joined by Professor David Whitford, President & CEO of RUMC, and Professor Dr Premnath Nagalingam, Dean of RUMC.
This year’s newly conferred doctors include Valedictorian, Por Chia Yin. Born and raised in Penang, Chia Yin was attracted to the transnational delivery of Medicine offered at RUMC, which allowed her to gain the best of both worlds’ exposure in Ireland and Malaysia. She also bagged the RUMC’s Awards for First Place in Surgery, Psychiatry, Family Medicine and Forensic and Legal Medicine.
Other prize winners include Ahmad Daniel bin Ibrahim who won the RUMC’s Award for Ophthalmology. “I am very happy and honoured to be receiving this award and this will be my symbol of hard work and success,” said Ahmad who also believes time management played an instrumental role in his achievement.
The RUMC Awards for First Place in Paediatrics and one of the prizes for Emergency Medicine were bagged by Mah Wen Yi. As a person who loves helping another and being in service, Wen Yi shared that this achievement felt like a pat on the back for all her hard work throughout medical school. Another recipient of RUMC’s Award for First place in Emergency Medicine is Nur Syafiqah Nabihah bt Hashim.
Several other prize winners were also honoured at the ceremony namely Sarah Amira binti Ahmad Hazri, Joel Chong Kai Xuan, Ng Kuan Yee and Lim Wei Sum for First Places in Public Health, Otolaryngology, Radiology, Medicine and Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
Professor Ronan O’Connell, President of RCSI University of Medicine & Health Sciences congratulated the newly-conferred doctors saying “As a class, you have been exemplary in your behaviour, displaying adaptability and resilience and you should be proud of it. These are the traits that will stand to you as doctors.”
“I wish you all the very best of luck in what is indeed a noble profession, to keep in touch with us as your careers develop and be sure to maintain the friendships that you’ve made throughout your time in medical school,” said Professor Michael Keane, Dean and Head of School of Medicine, UCD as he expressed his best wishes to RUMC’s Class of 2022.
“The making of a good doctor started before medical school, and a far greater influence on the making of a good doctor started way before you enter the school and that was your parents, families and supporters,” said Professor David Whitford before he ended the ceremony with a round of applause from the graduates to their parents and families.
As the Foreign University Branch Campus of leading universities in Ireland which are the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) and University College Dublin (UCD), RUMC is well-known for providing high-quality medical education over the last 25 years.
From comprehensive pre-clinical training in Ireland to extensive knowledge of the Malaysian healthcare system during clinical training in Penang, the doctors are well-equipped with the necessary skill set to take on their housemanship training in the coming years.
RUMC is the proud alma mater of a vast network of high-performing alumni, currently serving healthcare fields in many countries around the world. With the conferring of this cohort, University’s alumni numbers have grown to over 2,000 doctors.
The ceremony was also attended by Dr Maurice Manning, Chancellor of the National University of Ireland (NUI), Dr Patrick O’Leary, Registrar of the National University of Ireland, Professor Ronan O’Connell, President of RCSI University of Medicine & Health Sciences, Professor Hannah McGee, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, RCSI University of Medicine & Health Sciences, Associate Professor Patrick Felle, Associate Dean, International Relations, UCD, and Ms Grainne Keane, Director of Finance, UCD.
