Materia Medica Malaysiana

Crimea U students can stay on

Malaysian students who have enrolled for the first year of their medical degree at the Crimea State Medical University can go ahead with their studies.
Malaysian Medical Council president Datuk Dr Ismail Merican said the 1,119 students there would not be affected by the council's decision to remove the university's medical undergraduate programme from its list of recognised programmes.
“The council in its meeting on Tuesday had unanimously decided to withdraw the recognition granted to these programmes and it applies to any student being registered and admitted after Dec 31 this year.
“This means that those who are already there can continue,” he told reporters here yesterday.
The same ruling, said Dr Ismail, also applied to the 363 Malaysians taking up medicine at other now unrecognised institutes in Ukraine.
Among the reasons cited for the withdrawal were the “dubious” qualifications of students admitted into the institute’s medical studies, the difficulty faced by its medical graduates in using jargon in English and the possible strain on the quality of teaching due to the sudden increase in intake since 2001.
Asked if it was fair since many of these pre-medical students had already turned down options to study elsewhere, Dr Ismail, who is also the Health Ministry’s secretary-general, said the council would not exempt them.
“They can go ahead and study in the institute if they want to, but when they come back, they must sit and pass the Medical Qualifying Examination. If they are really well trained, they should have no problem passing the examination,” he said.
Crimea State Medical University was the first Ukrainian varsity to be recognised by the MMC after a visit in 2001. Dr Ismail said the council made a return visit to the institute in 2003 after receiving numerous complaints.
“We found that in 2001, there were only 53 Malaysian students at the institute but this has risen to 1,366 students by May this year. We fear this may compromise the quality of education and that this is nothing but a business operation.
“Some of the students admitted were in fact not eligible, being school dropouts from the arts stream and having very poor secondary school results. These graduates were also not very fluent in their usage of English medical jargon. This may jeopardise our patient safety and well-being,” he said.
The council, stressed Dr Ismail, would not compromise on patient safety and would ensure that medical undergraduates had the required knowledge and skills to practise medicine safely.