Teaching & Learning

The Discipline of Surgery plays a central role in medical education at University of Galway, delivering surgical teaching across all years of the undergraduate medicine programme, from foundational clinical skills and anatomy through to advanced procedural competencies and patient management in the senior clinical years. Our teaching is grounded in best evidence in surgical education, combining simulation-based learning, theatre-based clinical exposure across our affiliated hospital network, and structured assessment to develop graduates who are both technically capable and clinically confident. At postgraduate level, we support surgical trainees through research supervision, higher degrees including MD and PhD programmes, and active participation in national and international training initiatives, ensuring that our contribution to surgical workforce development extends well beyond the undergraduate years.

Undergraduate

The Discipline of Surgery contributes to the MB BCh BAO programme across Years 2 to 5, providing students with a structured and progressive surgical curriculum that builds from foundational scientific principles to complex clinical decision-making.

Core topics include surgical anatomy, wound healing, perioperative care, vascular and arterial disease, colorectal and upper gastrointestinal surgery, breast and endocrine surgery, surgical oncology, and emergency general surgery.

Teaching is delivered through a variety of formats including didactic lectures, small group tutorials, simulation and clinical skills laboratory sessions, and structured operative theatre placements, ensuring students develop both theoretical knowledge and practical competence.

Students undertake clinical placements across University Hospital Galway and our affiliated Regional Hospital Network, providing broad exposure to elective and emergency surgical practice in diverse clinical environments.

Additional opportunities include participation in undergraduate research projects, summer research placements, and engagement with ongoing clinical trials and academic activities within the Discipline, offering motivated students early experience of surgical scholarship and academic medicine.

Postgraduate Taught

The Discipline of Surgery contributes to a range of postgraduate taught programmes within the School of Medicine, including the Master of Surgery (MCh), Masters in Clinical Research and Masters in Cell Manufacturing and Therapy, providing advanced surgical education for qualified doctors pursuing specialist development.

Faculty members deliver module teaching and provide individual supervision across programmes spanning surgical skills, perioperative medicine, surgical research methodology, and clinical leadership, ensuring that postgraduate content is both clinically relevant and research-informed.

Teaching at postgraduate level is characterised by close integration between academic faculty and clinical practice, with trainees benefiting from direct mentorship by Consultant Surgeons who maintain active research portfolios and specialist clinical expertise.

The Discipline places a strong emphasis on developing the Academic Surgeon of the future, supporting postgraduate students in acquiring competencies in critical appraisal, research design, and evidence-based surgical practice alongside their specialist clinical training.

Postgraduate Research

The Discipline of Surgery offers supervised PhD and MD research opportunities across a broad range of surgical specialties, welcoming applications from medical graduates and healthcare professionals with an interest in pursuing original surgical research.

Current and recent supervision areas include surgical oncology (Prof. Aoife Lowery), minimally invasive surgery, vascular surgery (Prof Stewart Walsh), colorectal surgery, surgical education and simulation, clinical trials methodology, and meta-analysis and systematic review, reflecting the breadth of academic expertise within the Discipline. A particular strength is our laboratory-based breast cancer research programme, led by Prof. Michael Kerin, Prof. Roisin Dwyer, Dr. Nicola Miller and Dr. Laura Barkley which encompasses translational and molecular studies and offers postgraduate researchers access to a well-established and internationally connected research group and an established biobank.

Researchers benefit from a rich and well-supported environment, with access to clinical research infrastructure across University Hospital Galway and affiliated sites, laboratory facilities supporting both translational and basic science research, established links to the University's research institutes, and an active programme of investigator-led clinical trials at national and international level.

The Discipline has a strong track record of producing high-quality research outputs and of supporting trainees through to completion, with postgraduate researchers regularly presenting at national and international surgical meetings and publishing in peer-reviewed journals.

The Discipline of Surgery hosts the Sir Peter Freyer Surgical Symposium annually on the first weekend of September. It is the largest Surgical Conference in Ireland and is open to all surgical disciplines both nationally and internationally.

Teaching Innovation

The Discipline of Surgery is committed to innovation in surgical education, embedding simulation-based training and digital learning tools across undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. Faculty are actively engaged in curriculum development and educational research, exploring the application of AI-enhanced learning and competency-based assessment frameworks to better prepare the next generation of Surgeons.