RCSI (Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland) conferred 200 candidates with undergraduate and postgraduate degrees at two conferring ceremonies at the College on St Stephen's Green, Dublin. These are the first of four November conferring ceremonies, which will see a total of 925 candidates graduate from RCSI this week.

The first ceremony saw the graduation of 99 candidates from full-time undergraduate programmes including BSc Pharmacy, BSc Physiotherapy and medicine (MB, BCh, BAO (NUI, RCSI), LRCP&SI). 

In the afternoon ceremony, 101 candidates were conferred at the Diploma, Masters and Doctoral Degree ceremony. During this ceremony, Postgraduate Diplomas and Certificates in Health Professions Education, Postgraduate Diplomas in Human Factors in Patient Safety were presented to 36 candidates. A further 65 candidates were awarded doctoral and masters degrees at this event. These were conferred with Masters of Surgery (MCh) and higher degrees by research including MSc, MD and PhD; and MSc in Healthcare, Ethics & Law and Human Factors and Patient safety. 

Congratulating all those graduating on their success, Professor Cathal Kelly said: "The November conferring ceremonies are a fitting recognition of our graduate's accomplishments as all of their years of hard work and dedication came to fruition. These future healthcare and research professionals will now leave RCSI, to continue on their exciting and varied career paths, all with the common goal of improving human health. I would like to congratulate everyone who will graduate today on their achievements and wish them success in their careers as healthcare professionals and I look forward to seeing them back at the College as Alumni of RCSI."

The celebrations began yesterday evening with the conferring dinner for pharmacy and physiotherapy undergraduates and higher degree candidates from the School of Postgraduate Studies. More than 130 candidates and guests attended the dinner which took place in the College Hall. The President of RCSI, Professor John Hyland announced the winners of the President's Teaching Awards for pharmacy and physiotherapy as Dr Sam Maher, Lecturer at the School of Pharmacy and Dr Dara Meldrum, Senior Lecturer at the School of Physiotherapy.

The November Conferrings will conclude with two further ceremonies, for the School of Nursing & Midwifery and Masters Degree candidates, on Thursday, 17 November ceremony which will take place at The Convention Centre Dublin (CCD). Once again, these events will be live-streamed from the RCSI website. At this ceremony, the seventh Honorary Doctorate will be bestowed on Professor Áine Hyland, Emeritus Professor of Education and former Vice-President of University College Cork.