More M'sians turning to Russia to study medicine

Daily Express: Kota Kinabalu: Russia has become increasingly popular among Malaysians, including those in Sabah, as a place to study medicine despite recent controversy over recognition of the degree of one of its universities.
The trend of students turning to Russia started about eight years ago, following a recognition given by the Malaysian Government to the Degree in Medicine offered by the republic's Kursk State Medical University (KSMU).
Presently there are 500 Malaysians, of whom 190 are Sabahans, studying at KSMU alone. A new batch of about 100 Malaysians, including 25 from Sabah, would also be going to do medicine in September.
Most of the Sabahan students are self-sponsored while others are sponsored by Yayasan Sabah and the Public Services Department (PSD), Sabah.
Yayasan Sabah has to date offered scholarships to 20 Sabahans to pursue medical degrees, while PSD Sabah had during the past two years offered such scholarships to 16 Sabahans.
Two years from now there would be at least 20 to 40 students from Sabah who would be graduating from one of the universities there.
A representative of one of the universities said some of the villages had been conducting the medical course for about 70 years. Over the past 10 years, they have conducted the courses and examinations in English.
He said the only problems students encounter have to do with changes to the living environment and their missing home cooked meals.
"After sometime they will get used to the language which is also a problem at the beginning, besides the weatherÉnevertheless, Malaysian students are proven to have the will power to face all these minor problems," one of them said.
On the problem of getting all necessary documents translated and notarised for students going to Russia as raised by the parents in Sabah, Thayananthen said the Russian government wants any document in Malay like SPM, STPM and health certificates to be translated to English and notarised by the Notary Public in Malaysia.
"I would suggest and advise all parents wanting to get their children to study at the university to go to the High Court or Notary Public to get all the necessary documents translated and certified properly."
"The Russian government recognises the word notary more than anything. So we are trying to comply and please the Russian government so that our students will not have to go through any problems when they arrive there," he said.
He also revealed that 19 Malaysian students had been expelled from KSMU but none of them was from Sabah.
"They are students from the peninsula who were expelled for many reasons including not attending classes and not being productive in their performances," he said.