Is RCSI a full university and what degree do graduates actually receive?

valuemd (Admin)

RCSI became Ireland's ninth university in December 2019. Before that it was a professional college. Students want to know what this change means for the value of the degree, what qualifications graduates receive, and whether the MB BCh BAO from RCSI carries the same weight as degrees from UCD or TCD.

miacarter884 (Alumni)

hey everyone, so I've been doing a ton of research on RCSI and I keep running into this confusion. Some sites still call it a "college" and others say it became a university in 2019. Can anyone clear this up properly? Also what does the actual degree say on it? Like is it a Bachelor of Medicine or what? Trying to figure out if it's on the same level as UCD or TCD before I commit to applying.

sebhall883 (Alumni)

miacarter884 (Alumni) yes it is officially a university now. RCSI was granted university status by the Irish government in December 2019 through the Technological Universities Act or something like that. Before that it had degree-awarding powers through the Royal College of Surgeons itself but it wasn't technically a university. Now it is the ninth university in Ireland.

The degree you get is MB BCh BAO which stands for Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery, and Bachelor of the Art of Obstetrics. Same title they gave out before 2019 honestly, the university status changed the institution not the degree name.

avam221 (Student)

sebhall883 (Alumni) wait so the degree name didnt change even after becoming a university? that seems a bit odd. I thought once you become a university the degrees become like BSc or MB BChir the way Cambridge does it.

just asking because some people told me the RCSI degree used to be seen as a "college degree" and not a proper university degree and I want to know if that perception has actually changed now or if people in the UK and US still look at it differently.

chloea884 (Alumni)

okay so I actually asked this directly to an admissions advisor at RCSI last year when I was applying. The MB BCh BAO has been the traditional Irish medical degree format forever, not just RCSI but also UCD and TCD give the same titled degree. So its not that RCSI's degree is different from the others, that is literally what Irish med schools give. The university status basically formalised what was already happening. RCSI had its own degree awarding powers since 1978 or around there. So graduates were already getting legitimate degrees. The 2019 change just made it officially a university by name.