Pat Rabbitte, TD Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, launched the Perdana University RCSI School of Medicine in Malaysia, on Thursday, 2 June 2011 at RCSI's graduation ceremony in the National Concert Hall, Dublin.

Perdana University is a new University established in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. RCSI will host the five year undergraduate medical programme, with the first intake of up to 100 students in September 2011. The five-year programme being delivered will the same as the programme in RCSI Dublin.

Minister Rabbitte said: "RCSI's involvement in the Perdana University RCSI School of Medicine is fully aligned with the Government's third level education strategy to expand the internationalisation of Irish education. RCSI is already a global premium provider of medical education and now its further expansion in Malaysia with the development of Perdana University will contribute to putting Ireland on the map internationally as providers of excellence in education."

Since 1996 RCSI has been successfully collaborating with UCD in providing a twinning programme in Penang Medical College (PMC) whereby medical students complete the first half of their training in Dublin (2.5 years) and then transfer to Penang for hospital and community training.

The Perdana University RCSI School of Medicine is part of the Kuala Lumpur Academic Medical Centre (AMC) - a proposal to develop a centre of excellence for medicine in Malaysia. The AMC will comprise a 600-bed private hospital, a research centre and Perdana University. The final campus is scheduled to be complete in 2014. Until then, the medical schools will be located in at interim campus.

Professor Anthony Cunningham, current Professor of Anaesthesia in RCSI and Beaumont Hospital, has been appointed the Foundation Dean of the programme in Perdana.

At the conferring ceremony in the National Concert Hall, 211 graduands were conferred with Degrees in Medicine, Surgery and Obstetrics (MB, BCh and BAO) and 42 students will be conferred with higher degrees including Master of Science (MSc), Master of Surgery (MCh), Doctor of Medicine (MD), Degree of Master of Pharmacy (MPharm) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) from RCSI.

Professor Cathal Kelly, Registrar/CEO, RCSI, said: "As the largest undergraduate medical school in Ireland, the conferring ceremony is one of the highlights of the academic year for RCSI. Today is a very special day for our graduates; as they move from being medical students to doctors. I would like to congratulate all our graduates here today and wish them every success in the future."

This is the first graduation ceremony in the College's 227-year history whereby graduands will receive an RCSI degree alongside the traditional licentiates and the degree of the National University of Ireland. To mark this major landmark in the College's history, the first ever RCSI degree was awarded on 30 May 2011 to Her Excellency, Mary McAleese, President of Ireland.