Materia Medica Malaysiana

Admission interview may be a must in future

CYBERJAYA: Students vying for places in critical courses such as medicine in public universities may in future be required to pass an admission interview to secure a place.

Higher Education Minister Datuk Dr Shafie Mohd Salleh said that if implemented, the interview would give university authorities a better gauge of whether applicants were suitable for the courses, which included dentistry, pharmacy, engineering, law and accounting.

“This is something we are looking at. But first of all, we will try to expand the number of places in the critical courses,” he told reporters after witnessing the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Multimedia University Malaysia and Microsoft Malaysia yesterday.

He was asked to comment on Malaysian Medical Association president Dr N. Arumugam’s statement on Wednesday that an admission interview was necessary to vet applicants, as not all top students were suited for a career in medicine.

After much public outcry, Dr Shafie announced on Wednesday that the 128 students who were not given places to study medicine in public universities would now be absorbed into both public and private medical programmes.

International Medical University dean of student affairs Prof Ong Kok Hai said universities should adopt a multi-tiered admission system consisting of academic performance, an interview and students’ participation in extra-curricular activities.

“A student with good grades may not necessarily make a good doctor. We need to assess their language and communication skills.

“It would also be good to know if the student is approachable and humble as it would make him or her a better doctor,” he added.

On the financial worries of some of the 128 students, Dr Shafie said the students had two options to finance their education which were the convertible loan, where it would be converted into a scholarship if students performed well, and the National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) loans.

He said the PTPTN had allocated a sum of RM72mil for the 47,969 students offered places to pursue first degree and diploma-level programmes in public universities.