The State's first clinical doctorate in nursing science is being developed at Dundalk Institute of Technology (DKIT). The college also hopes to establish a postgraduate medical school.
The announcement was made by Dr Siobhán O'Halloran, head of the new €15 million school of nursing, midwifery and health which Minister of State Seán Power formally opened yesterday.
It is the latest in a series of major infrastructural developments on the campus in recent years which has so far seen close to €60 million invested in the construction of additional faculties.
Mr Power said the new school "will ensure an optimum learning environment for nursing students in DKIT through the provision of purpose-built facilities with state-of-the-art clinical skills and human science laboratories".
The courses on offer to the 100 new enrolments a year are a BSc in general nursing, in mental handicap nursing, in psychiatric nursing and in health promotion and physical activity.
These are in addition to a number of postgraduate diplomas in nursing.
The school of nursing in the region had been attached to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda where it opened in 1956.
Dr Tom Collins, director of Dundalk institute, said the new facility would help to create a momentum for healthcare-training in the northeast region "which would be envied both nationally and globally".