UCC students celebrate scholarship success

As part of the National University of Ireland’s (NUI) annual awards ceremony, the Dr H H Stewart Medical Scholarship in Dentistry, worth €1,000, was bestowed upon University College Cork (UCC) student Mahfaruddin Mohammed.

In addition, fellow students Claire Noreen Foley and Amanda McLaughlin received second and third prize respectively, and were given medals in recognition of their achievements.

Held in the Royal Hospital Kilmainham on 25 November, the ceremony saw winners from UCC, University College Dublin, NUI Maynooth, NUI Galway and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.

Speaking at the event, the NUI Chancellor, Dr Maurice Manning, referred to the recommendation in the McCarthy Report that NUI should be abolished.

Dr Manning said that: ‘This proposal does not stand up to impartial scrutiny. Abolishing NUI would not save money but would remove a national institution, which has served the country well for over a century. While the crisis in the public finances must be addressed, at this time the Government should not be panicked into making short-term damaging changes to our educational infrastructure, such as would occur if the abolition of NUI were to proceed. Be in no doubt about it. If NUI were to disappear, the identity of each of the member institutions would be altered and fragmentation, which has long been identified as a weakness of the university sector, would increase.’

The Dr H H Stewart Medical Scholarship in Dentistry is based on the results of the examinations in that subject in the Colleges of Medicine and Health Sciences of the Constituent Universities and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.