Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 8 September 2022
1302. Deputy Ged Nash asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science the number of trainee doctor places that have been on offer in the State each year since 2016; the number of those places that are being offered through CAO and to non-European Union students respectively in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42362/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraUp until this year, the Fottrell Report provided the basis on which the level of provision for EU students in medical schools was determined. It specifies that an intake of between 700 and 740 EU students per annum was required to move towards national self-sufficiency. This target marked a more than doubling of the number of EU students who were accepted in to medical schools at the time the report was published. The number of non-EU students admitted to medicine courses is a determined by the higher education institutions themselves, in line with their autonomy.
In recent months, the Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly TD and I jointly announced an agreement with the Irish medical schools to increase the number of places available for EU students by 200 over the next five years. The agreement reached with the medical schools will begin with an additional 60 EU students in September 2022, climbing to 120 in September 2023, and up to 200 by 2026.
First year enrolments in medicine for the period of 2016/17 to 2020/21 are in the table below. These figures are taken from the HEA's Student Records System.
|
|
2016/2017 |
2017/2018 |
2018/2019 |
2019/2020 |
2020/2021 |
|
Ireland/UK/EU |
734 |
719 |
721 |
733 |
754 |
|
Non-EU |
517 |
579 |
598 |
620 |
649 |
