Consider careers other than medicine

Top-scoring students should consider careers other than medicine, the number one choice.
To counter the glut of top-scoring school-leavers applying for medical courses in universities, the Higher Education Ministry and the Public Service Department want to "open their minds" to other choices.
Higher Education Minister Datuk Shafie Salleh said the ministry and PSD would come up with selection methods and incentives to persuade top-scorers to become scientists. He said most students had a narrow view of career choices.
"Just because students have a CGPA (cumulative grade point average) of 4.0 it does not mean they must be doctors. Our country also needs scientists, so we will discuss with the PSD how to get more students to take up science," he said.
Although Malaysia needed more doctors in the public sector, he said, it also needed more scientists to achieve its development goals, which include being a leader in biotechnology and information and communications technology.
The number of students who apply for PSD scholarships for medicine often exceeds the number of places available.
This year, 1,265 students were offered PSD scholarships and 1,189 picked medicine. Only 322 secured scholarships.
Shafie said it took a "special kind of person" with perseverance and dedication to become a scientist.
"We plan to persuade top students to choose science and we’ll have selection methods to determine if they have the right personality."
Shafie said this after witnessing the signing of agreements among three universities — the International Islamic University (UIA), University College of Science and Technology Malaysia (Kustem) and the Bung Hatta University in western Sumatra, Indonesia — with a local company on the conservation and commercialisation of ikan kelah, or the Malaysian mahseer.
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