Nearly 1,000 health students have now moved from Jordanstown to Magee, Ulster University has said.
Over 900 students have switched to the Derry campus to study health sciences such as physiotherapy, podiatry, and diagnostic radiography at what the university describes as its new 'multi-disciplinary centre of healthcare excellence'.
A UU spokesperson said: "The transfer of health sciences further expands frontline healthcare course provision at Ulster University’s city campus, with the programmes offering current and new students the opportunity to begin and to develop their careers in this progressive multi-disciplinary healthcare environment on campus.
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"The health sciences programmes are now delivered alongside the paramedic science teaching provision and the School of Medicine – both now in their second year - and the long-standing and multi-award-winning School of Nursing."
The spokesperson added: "This degree of integration within higher education is unique in the UK with staff and students working and studying alongside each other, creating connections and fostering the teamwork essential in health and social care."
Executive Dean, Professor Carol Curran, said: “Our popular Health Sciences programmes offer current and new students the opportunity to develop their careers in this progressive multi-disciplinary healthcare environment on campus.
"Over recent months as we gave returning students and offer holders the chance to join us for tours of campus and the city it was so clear that the opportunity to learn alongside the other healthcare disciplines based here is exciting and motivational for them.
Professor Curran added: “Bringing these programmes together on one campus reflects the NHS strategic emphasis on the development of multi-disciplinary teams and rich opportunities for interprofessional learning. Together we will provide the next generation of highly skilled health professionals so urgently required to meet the needs of the healthcare workforce and patients."
The Magee campus in Derry also hosts and operates one of only three Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) competency test centres in the UK.
The Western Trust has welcomed the move.
Neil Guckian, Trust chief executive, said: "The calibre of highly skilled students who graduate from Ulster University and go on to join our healthcare workforce in the North West and throughout Northern Ireland is high. I have been impressed by the bright, caring, skilled students I have met here today and indeed those Ulster graduates I have crossed paths with, professionally in clinical settings."
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