No more nursing schools from July

Star: KUALA LUMPUR: The mushrooming of private nursing colleges will soon be a thing of the past. Applications to set up new institutions will not be accepted from July.
Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said a moratorium was necessary to prevent an oversupply of nurses and other problems arising from graduate unemployment.
“The move will also prohibit the launch of new diploma programmes in nursing as the ministry wants existing providers to concentrate more on degree courses.
“There will be no more private institutions providing nursing courses as we are already on the right track to achieve the recommended World Health Organi­sation nurse to population ratio of 1:200,” he said in a press conference at Hotel Istana yesterday.
“The moratorium will be in place as long as the supply of nurses meets market demand.”
Malaysia’s current nurse to population ratio is 1:490.
Speaking after launching Masterskill Education Group Sdn Bhd’s prospectus in conjunction with its proposed listing on the main market of Bursa Malaysia, Mohamed Khaled said Malaysia had enough institutions to achieve the ideal ratio.
“There are 106 higher education institutions that train nurses in the country and we (the ministry) want them to concentrate on improving quality,” he said.
“Currently, most programmes in nursing and the allied health sciences are at diploma level and Malaysia requires more trainers and students at degree levels in these fields,” he added.
Of the 106 institutions, 66 are private providers, 11 are public institutions and the rest are run by the Health Ministry.
He added that established private higher education providers like Master­skill could contribute to Malay­sia’s aspiration of becoming the region’s education hub by recruiting more international students.