University College Cork (UCC) had won the Irish University Award in 03/04 and 05/06. Located in Cork, second largest and southern most county of Ireland. The medical school in UCC is well known for the excellence of its clinical training and I personally really like the integrated system practised here though it is quite hard for me to catch up my studies in the beginning of medical year.

I am currently a second-year Medicine student, so I bet my experience would be very limited if I were to share, but hey, as the saying goes ‘sharing is caring’.

About UCC, it is a campus-based university where almost all of its faculty buildings are within walking distance, except for medical students who will be having their lectures in Cork University Hospital (CUH) that requires us to walk about 30 minutes from our main campus.

I would say that being a pre-clinical-year student does not mean that I will have to stay in medical faculty from 9 to 5. This is one of the things that I love about UCC, because we really have a lot of free time. Sometimes, I may only one hour class throughout the day, but once in a month at least, I will be dead tired because having to attend lectures and tutorials all day long. Well, it depends on how you perceive the importance of attending lectures and tutorials.

As for me, attending tutorial is a MUST!!!

This is the only time I can give my full attention and not being sleepy. Apart from that, I normally learn and understand the most from the tutorial session. As for lectures, they usually don’t take attendance, so it’s totally up to yourself whether you want to come to the class or not. Talking from my experience, I vow myself not to skip lectures anymore in the next years, because I bet Allah really loves me by giving ‘cash reward’, if you know what I mean. I did badly in my exams for subject that I skipped my class. What a valuable lesson.

Cost of living here in Cork is not as high as in Dublin. Some people in Dublin even called us (Cork students) as Mayor since we have a lot of money (maybe..but it depends, the case is not the same with me). I am really thankful for being given the chance to study in Cork. I can’t imagine myself living in big city like Dublin, London, or Manchester where I have easy access to halal food restaurant. I bet I will always buy my food instead of cooking for myself. But then again, Allah knows what’s best for me. Speaking of cooking skills, I become from zero to hero in cooking. (Not merely a hero, but decent enough to feed myself and my roommate)

As for accommodation, first year students will usually stay in Castlewhite Apartment (a university residence), it is within walking distance to the university and city centre. I bet it is the most strategic location for first years since we don’t really know the Cork city. As for second years and onwards, they usually rent houses and it is reasonably cheap as compared to other places in Ireland for medical students.

Talking about Cork city, personally I don’t think it is the heaven for shopping lovers like me though you can see the almost all designer’s shops here, but still I think UK is better than in Ireland. (But I love Malaysia more)

The Muslim community here is small and halal food restaurant is not as many as compared to Dublin. But there are growing numbers of shop selling halal chicken, beef and what not. We don’t have big mosques like Dublin and London, but enough with decent Cork Mosque which is located in Togher. which I normally go for ‘Eidul Fitr prayer and Jum’ah prayer for the guys.

Cork is the second largest county in Ireland, it may be hectic to some people especially during the weekends, but still not as bad as Dublin (poor Dublin). Still it is a very nice place to stay, a nice place to learn, and a nice place to study!!

Don’t feel sad if you get an offer to study in Cork (like I did the last time) because after some time, I believed that this is definitely the life that I wanted. Allah swt knows best!

* The writer is currently studying as a medical student in University College Cork.*

*This Is My Experience adalah artikel sempena Sambutan Pelajar Baru yang akan tiba di Cork tidak lama lagi. Kami di AtapHijau ingin mengucapkan selamat datang kepada semua pelajar-pelajar baru ke Cork, Ireland*