256 future doctors from 28 different countries around the world donned caps and gowns to graduate from the RCSI School of Medicine on Wednesday, 8 June 2016. Medical degrees were presented to graduands at the annual conferring ceremony which took place in the Convention Centre Dublin (CCD).

RCSI's School of Medicine conferring ceremony sees the largest number of doctors in Ireland graduate each year and the graduation ceremony is a celebration for students and their families, some of whom have travelled from all over the world to attend the ceremony.

Professor Cathal Kelly, Chief Executive/Registrar, RCSI, congratulated all those graduating on their success. He said: "Graduation is a day of great celebration and excitement for our graduates as their years of hard work and dedication come to fruition. These future doctors now leave RCSI, to continue on their various career paths, equipped with all the necessary knowledge, skills and patient-centred attitudes required for a fulfilling and successful career in this noble profession. We look forward to watching our graduates progress on the next phase of their journey as healthcare leaders of the future as Alumni of RCSI."

An honorary doctorate will be awarded to Professor Nezam H. Afdhal, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School; Senior Physician in Hepatology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts and is an Alumnus of RCSI from the Class of 1981. He delivered an inspirational speech on five key points for success, to graduating students. This is the sixth RCSI honorary doctorate to be awarded since RCSI received independent degree awarding status in 2010. 

Speaking on RCSI's latest honorary doctorate recipient, Professor Cathal Kelly said: "It is with great honour that we bestow this honorary doctorate on Professor Afdhal. An RCSI medical Alumnus, he has been chosen to receive this award in recognition of his outstanding life's clinical work on the complications of liver disease, including cirrhosis and portal hypertension and his research into liver fibrosis, hepatitis B and C and liver fibrosis. Over Professor Afdhal's career he has developed multiple new treatments for liver disease including the use of elastography of the liver to replace liver biopsy and he has tackled hepatitis C (HCV), a virus only discovered in 1989. In recent years he led the global Hepatitis C team that developed Harvoni; a new treatment that can cure 97% of all the 200 million patients worldwide with the disease. His role in the discovery, therapy development and possibility for widespread cure for hepatitis C, all in the space of just over 25 years, is something that will inspire our graduates and certainly is something for them to aspire to in their careers."

The 256 graduates were be conferred with Honours Degree of Bachelor of Medicine, NUI, Bachelor of Surgery, Bachelor of Obstetrics MB, BCh, BAO (NUI, RCSI), LRCP & SI.

A commemorative video for the Class of 2016 was unveiled at the Undergraduate Conferring Dinner on 7 June. The video features a variety of candidates from the graduating class who share some their favourite memories of RCSI, while some academic staff also feature, delivering congratulatory messages, while sharing some fond moments of their own of the Class of 2016.