IIUM To Set Up Dentistry Faculty This Year

KUALA LUMPUR, May 10 (Bernama) — The International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM) is in the midst of establishing the Kulliyyah or Faculty of Dentistry to fulfill Malaysia’s future needs of qualified dentists.
The faculty, expected to be set up this year, will be offering a five-year Bachelors’ Degree in Dentistry and Dental Surgery programme.
Deputy Rector (Academic and Research) of the university, Associate Professor Dr Mohd Azmi Omar said the faculty will have an initial intake of 40 students in July next year.
“About this time next year we will be signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Health Ministry,” he told Bernama in an interview, Wednesday.
The MoU is to formalise the utilisation of the facilities of government hospitals and community polyclinics for the teaching and training of the students in the dentistry field.
Dr Azmi said like the medical clinical programme, the dentistry programme would have a ratio of one staff to four students.
The medical faculties of IIUM namely Medicine, Pharmacy, Allied Health, Nursing and soon to be opened Dentistry — are housed in its campus in Kuantan.
It is the second campus after its main campus in Gombak, which houses the older faculties and other arts-based faculties plus the Kulliyyahs of Engineering and Science.
Currently there are about 1,150 students pursuing various medical degree programmes at the university’s Kuantan Medical Campus.
The third campus is the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilisation (ISTAC) in Damansara, and the fourth is the Matriculation Centre in Petaling Jaya. IIUM currently has 13 faculties offering undergraduate and post graduate degrees and dentistry will be its 14th faculty.