Materia Medica Malaysiana

More Sabah medical students

Kota Kinabalu: More Sabahans are taking up medicine at Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), said Vice-Chancellor Tan Sri Prof. Dr Abu Hassan Othman.

He said the university was offering 45 places - an increase by 10 from last year and that of this 12 were Sabahans, compared to only five last year, adding that those who qualified were excellent students who scored 4.2 CPGA.

“The intake was based on high achievement or meritocracy but the racial distribution among the Bumiputera, Chinese and Indians was fair,” he said.

Dr Abu said the UMS could only offer very limited places for medical students since its labs are only able accommodate about 40 students at a time.

The university is planning to upgrade the laboratories although facilities were still adequate to meet current needs.

On the 1,500 re-applications from students wishing to enter the UMS, Dr Abu said their cases would be dealt with accordingly. “If they meet the requirement we’ll accommodate them but we’ll also try to fill the 4,300 quota this year.”

He said the quota was for all 58 study programmes including medical, biotechnology, engineering, social sciences and economic studies.

Dr Abu, in his address, said the UMS was also targeting at increasing the intake of post-graduate students from the current eight per cent to 20 per cent in 2010.

“The ideal figure is 30 per cent but that’s a tall order,” he said.

Nevertheless, the university was confident of achieving the target after its initial effort to attract foreign students.

This year, 10 Chinese nationals were currently reading for their Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) with several more inquiries coming from China recently.

There were more than 60 under and post-graduates from 18 countries, particularly from Asian countries, studying in the UMS, including one from New Zealand.

He said the lecturers, staff and management should also work together to produce what he described as an “excellent university brand”.

“Comparatively we are as good as others (schools)…we have former students working with the Public Services Department including multi-national banks and big firms,” he said.

Based on the current enrolment, Dr Abu said the UMS campus in Kota Kinabalu had 14,763 students and 2,512 in Labuan.

Compared to the figure in 1995, which was only 621, the increase certainly reflected the university’s credibility.

To ensure that UMS continues with its effort in the nation’s development, Dr Abu outlined seven strategies, namely to:

The university must continue with the democratisation process of the education system particularly higher learning;

More emphasis on science and technology education;

Ensure the quality of education is preserved despite the increasing number of students;

Ensure marketing ethos permeating the current education system do not sacrifice the values in education;

Forge stronger relations with the industry and commerce communities to form the “synergy” in the modernisation of Malaysia;

Ensure the university focus is not only to prepare skilled workers but also contribute to research and significant innovation activities;

Ensure the university’s administration remains “autonomous”, progressive, transparent and democratic He said good governance was an important requisite to ensure UMS continued to play its important role towards national development,” he said.