 Notably, the current President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, is also the patron of RUMC.The Penang Medical College (PMC) was founded as a private medical school in 1996, in response to concerns over the relocation of Universiti Sains Malaysia's medical faculty to Kelantan; it was felt that the State of Penang should also have its own medical school.Geoffrey Geh Sim Wah, a surgeon by profession who had been trained at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), approached his alma mater to gauge the latter's interest in setting up a branch campus in Penang.