Materia Medica Malaysiana

Second shot at medicine

The dream to become doctors lives on for 128 top students. The Cabinet today approved several measures to help them study medicine in either public universities or private colleges.

It decided to offer a loan to all students who obtained a Cumulative Grade Point Average of 4.0

And the offer comes with an added incentive: if they do well in university, then the loan will be turned into a scholarship.

Scholars will be bonded with the Government after they have completed their studies.

The Government also moved to ensure that the problem of demand outstripping supply will not be repeated next year. It has decided to hire more medical lecturers from Commonwealth countries so that the proper teacher-student ratio can be maintained and more places to study medicine can be offered.

The decisions reached at a lengthy Cabinet meeting today seek to douse a controversy that has been raging since last week when admissions to universities were announced.

It also signalled a move by the Abdullah administration to tackle the endemic problem of the shortage of doctors in Malaysia.

Higher Education Minister Datuk Dr Shafie Salleh briefed the Press on the Cabinet’s decisions. He said that, in principle, all the students should be given places in public universities and private colleges.

"After deliberating at length, we decided that students with a 4.0 CGPA who didn’t obtain their first choice, which was medicine, should be given another chance," he said.

He noted that Health Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek had spoken to private institutions and they had agreed to provide places if none were available in the country’s eight public medical schools.

The 128 students will have to register at the institutions which had offered them places and, later, apply to study medicine through their respective universities.

Shafie said the public universities and private colleges intending to absorb the 128 students would be provided with a list of their names to prevent other students from taking advantage.

He said that the Government could not guarantee places to all the 4.0-pointers but hoped that medical schools would make the places available.

Medical courses are offered at eight public universities and five private institutions.

Shafie also noted that the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC) had agreed that the 1:6 lecturer-student ratio need not be maintained at the pre-clinical stage (normally the first two years of a medical degree) where subjects such as anatomy, biochemistry and physiology are taught.

At the clinical stage where internal medicine, psychiatry and paediatrics are among the subjects, the ratio had to be observed.

"The MMC feels that it will be acceptable for a lecturer to be teaching up to 10 students at the pre-clinical stage. After that, if necessary, students will be re-distributed, possibly to other schools to achieve a 1:6 ratio."

He was hopeful that the problem of demand outstripping supply would not arise next year.

"We will bring in more lecturers from Commonwealth countries and purchase more equipment," he said.

Meanwhile, MCA president Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting said that the Cabinet made the decision in the interest of the country.

He added that the Cabinet had understood the aspirations of these students and today’s decision should put an end to the controversy.

Chua said the Cabinet’s decision could help overcome the shortage of doctors in Government clinics and hospitals.

"With the decision, local public universities are expected to produce about 1,000 doctors each year.

"It will help the Government achieve its target of having one doctor for every 650 people by the year 2015," said Chua, who is also an MCA vice-president.