Doing medicine in Egypt

Star: CAIRO: The Higher Education Ministry will standardise its procedures to facilitate the sending of students to study medicine in Egypt.
“Last September, 499 first-year students arrived in Egypt to study medicine at seven universities. This is our first big batch, so there are many logistical issues that need to be ironed out such as minimum entry qualifications, errant agents and housing,” said Higher Education Minister Datuk Mustapa Mohamed who was on a week-long working trip to Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
Speaking to The Star after a dialogue with about 500 Malaysian students at the Malaysian Hall here on Monday, he said Malaysia has been sending students over to Egypt for religious studies for decades and has just started sponsoring students to take up the highly in demand, critical programme in the Northern African country because of its wide advantages.
“Studying medicine in Egypt is unique because students learn in English and use Arabic in the society so they can improve their proficiency in both. And for some universities like Al-Azhar University, they need to study and memorise the Quran too,” he added.
There are currently more than 640 public and private Malaysian students taking up medicine in the country.
Mustapa also had a special dialogue with 250 Malaysian medical students to get feedback on the problems they face such as their difficulty in the Arabic language and delay in the payment of fees which bar them from sitting for their exams.
To help address the problems, a committee that will be headed by the Malaysian Ambassador to Egypt and student leaders has been set up.
On the issue of errant education agents, Mustapa said he had met with the relevant sponsors in Malaysia and proposed a new system to avoid abuses.
Mustapa also signed a memorandum of understanding with the Egyptian Higher Education Minister Dr Amr Ezzat Salma to foster more exchanges in medicine between the two countries.