At UCD School of Medicine, our programmes are subject to ongoing and continuous improvement based on feedback from our stakeholders and changes in the practice of medicine. Medicine 2030 is a comprehensive review launched in 2023/2024, the outcome of which will be the implementation of a new curriculum for our undergraduate entry and graduate entry medicine programmes. The new Medicine 2030 curriculum will launch in 2026/2027 academic session. Click here for more information.
July 2025
As we approach the completion of Phase 3b (detailed design) stage of the Medicine 2030 project, I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their ongoing commitment. Your excellent contributions have enabled strong progress towards our new curriculum notwithstanding the demands of our existing commitments. The Project Team is energised by the shared enthusiasm for creating a new programme that retains the best parts of our existing curriculum, addresses the needs identified during our consultation, and which positions UCD Medicine as a leader in medical education.
Recap of Progress to Date:
Phase 3b - Synthesis and Integration
In Phase 3b, we consolidated individual Design Teams outputs (which comprises over 170 pages and over 600 subject-level learning objectives) into a single integrated curriculum narrative. This synthesis focused on:
Integrative Longitudinal Themes
Our analysis deliberately did not focus on traditional subject strengths which we explicitly acknowledge and which are clearly evident in our Medicine 2030 curriculum description. Instead, we drew on the Design Team insights to identify five integrative longitudinal themes that express the professional developmental journey of our students as we prepare them for immediate and lifelong clinical practice. These five themes are:
These themes provide a coherent framework for weaving together the essential biomedical knowledge, broad clinical acumen and professional development our students will achieve as they progress through the programme.
Next Steps:
We will next engage with Heads of Subject to:
In parallel, we will be inviting expressions of interest from academic staff to coordinate or co-coordinate the realisation of these themes as we move to the next implementation phase (programme structure and module build) early in the 2025/2026 academic session. Further academic workshops will support this process and the ongoing refinement of the themes.
Resources & Feedback
A reminder that key documents, including Design Team outputs, guidance materials and reference resources, are available on the Medicine 2030 BrightSpace pages and the Clinical Education & Skills Brightspace pages.
The Project Team welcomes your feedback and your input to shaping the new curriculum that we are building together. Thank you again for your sustained engagement and commitment.
Medicine 2030 captures the best of UCD Medicine and we are very excited to now proceed to the next phase of the project.
Curriculum Committee
A Medicine 2030 Committee has been established to design the Medicine 2030 curriculum and recommend it to the Medicine Programmes Board and Academic Council of the University.
This Committee is chaired by Prof Martyn Partridge (Emeritus Professor of Medicine at Imperial College London) with our Associate Dean for Programmes & Educational Innovation, Assoc. Prof Suzanne Donnelly as the Deputy Chair and the School's academic lead. The Committee membership includes the University’s Dean of Undergraduate Studies, representatives of each of our six academic sections, the Chairs of our three principal Medicine Degree Committees, a Patient Educator representative, two recent UCD Medicine graduates, two senior professional staff, and three senior academic nominees of the Dean.
Consultation
During January to April 2024, we conducted a wide-ranging consultation on our current medicine curriculum and the preparedness of our graduates for medical practice. We have invited feedback from almost 10,000 individuals including students, alumni, patient representatives, and academic, adjunct academic & professional staff.
We would like to thank those who took the time to provide detailed, constructive feedback. Respondents acknowledged the quality of our existing programmes, the importance of patient contact, and the inspiring role models that help prepare our graduates for clinical practice. Current students value Stage 1 in promoting engagement with the University, the programme and the UCD community. Our excellent teachers and inspiring role models were commended, as were our strong foundation in biomedical sciences, and the breadth of clinical training across primary, secondary, and tertiary care settings.
Mission, Ambition, Aims and Objectives
The Medicine 2030 Committee has endorsed the re-statement of our programme mission as:
Our programme seeks to prepare, enable and inspire tomorrow’s doctors for excellence in compassionate patient care and for professional fulfilment in the service of patients and the lifelong pursuit of better health for all.
The Committee also approved both the statement of our change ambition and our overarching educational aims:
Programme Objectives
Medicine 2030 will enable our graduates to:
Next Steps
Having re-stated both our target Graduate Attributes and our Programme Outcomes, the Medicine 2030 Committee has commissioned a number of Design Teams that will build the constituent educational components. These components each contribute to the overall programme outcomes and successively build towards the attainment of our target Graduate Attributes. The Design Team work programme is informed by our agreed educational principles and the consultation feedback.
Current Design Teams include:
Each Design Team comprises typically 20 members from across the academic subject areas, drawing on over 150 academic, clinical, patient advocates, and professionals staff. Each team is led by two Co-Chairs who report progress periodically to the Medicine 2030 Committee.
Further Information
For further information on Medicine 2030, please contact the project team at Medicine2030@ucd.ie.