I September 2011, I wrote this article http://pagalavan.com/2011/09/25/what-moratorium-part-3/ It was about a new unknown medical programme which suddenly appeared in the newspaper. Today, I was sent this link http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/2012/03/02/medical-grads-see-red-with-mmc/(below) by a friend of mine which really proves what I have been saying all this while, yet again…………….. Gosh, I should stop saying ” I told you so……”
It is all about money. A local college does a twining programme with an unrecognised Russian university but it is recognised locally!! Man, what the hell is going on in this country. Is MMC becoming a totally toothless rat! The response from the college at the end is unimaginable ” marketing manager Murtado Alao said LUC was only using the Ukrainian universities’ facilities but the teaching would be conducted by LUC’s academic staff” What makes him think that he has enough academics in the first place? Probably the Russian Uni may have better number of academics!!
The next statement made my day ” It’s an offshore programme. The students, upon graduating, will get their medical degrees from LUC, not the Ukrainian universities,” Genius!!! Now we can make a degree recognisable by “sub-con” to a local college which is a totally unknown medical school!. Welcome to Bolehland or BN land…………………… for sure our country is doomed!
I wonder what degree UCSA( University College Shahputra) is going to produce! BTW, I thought Lincoln College is also running a local 5 years MBBS programme. So, is the 300 student intake also include the local programme? I wonder.
Medical grads see red with MMC
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–>March 2, 2012
The council’s decision to allow a local private university to run offshore programmes in three unrecognised Ukranian universities has got the medical graduates crying foul.
PETALING JAYA: Medical graduates from three unrecognised Ukranian universities are seeing red with the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC) for allowing a local university to run an offshore programme with those universities.
FMT learnt that last week, a large group of overseas medical graduates and their parents met with MMC president Dr Hasan Abdul Rahman to vent their frustration.
“About 300 students and parents had gathered but only 40 of us were taken in to meet with Hasan and other officials,” a medical graduate said on condition of anonymity.
“Our objective is to get an explanation from MMC regarding the Medical Qualifications Exam (MQE) but we are sad because Hasan did not answer our questions,” he said, referring to the examination which graduates from unrecognised universities must sit for in order to practise here.
He claimed that MMC was more interested in the welfare of private universities as opposed to that of students.
“Just look at Lincoln University College (LUC). They will make millions with the blessing of MMC,” he added.
A check by FMT showed that MMC had given the green light to LUC to run offshore programmes in three Ukrainian universities unrecognised by the Public Service Department (PSD).
The three universities were the Ternopil State Medical University, Danylo Halytsky Lviv National Medical University and Ivano Frankivsk National Medical University.
LUC was the only local university to obtain an approval from MMC to run offshore programmes in unrecognised universities.
“Why did LUC receive such a special privilege?” asked the student, who graduated from the Danylo Halytsky Lviv National Medical University.
“The actual cost of completing a medical degree in Ukraine is between RM120,000 and RM130,000. But with Lincoln being the intermediary, the price will now escalate to about RM200,000 (with accomodation),” he said.
‘This is unfair’
Furthermore, the student said that with the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) having given its approval, students doing these offshore programmes would receive higher education loan funds (PTPTN).
“PTPTN loan is usually given to those studying in local institutions that are MQA-approved,” he added.
He also pointed out that while the Malaysian ambassador to Ukraine had suggested that a Ukranian university could only enrol 50 Malaysian students if recognised, MMC however granted LUC 300 seats for the three universities.
“So LUC would earn about RM70,000 from each student and RM21 million in total from the 300 seats,” he added.
The student also asked why MMC appointed a third party (LUC), which resulted in students having to pay more, when the three universities had submitted a proposal to MMC directly to be recognised.
He also accused LUC of misleading the students by claiming that the programmes in Ukraine would be conducted in their offshore campus.
“Those three universities are Ukrainian government universities and their staff are paid by the Ukrainian government. There is no evidence of LUC building an offshore campus in Ukraine,” he said, adding that Lincoln was merely operating as a recruiting agent to send students abroad.
The student also said that those who complete the LUC offshore programme would not need to sit for the MQE upon their return to Malaysia, whereas he being a direct student of one of the universities, was forced to sit for it.
“This is really unfair. Why has MMC given this privilege to LUC students when the syllabus are the same? We want an explanation,” he added.
LUC: We’ll conduct classes
When contacted, LUC’s marketing manager Murtado Alao said LUC was only using the Ukrainian universities’ facilities but the teaching would be conducted by LUC’s academic staff.
“It’s an offshore programme. The students, upon graduating, will get their medical degrees from LUC, not the Ukrainian universities,” he said, adding that their course was recognised by the MMC, the MQA and the Higher Education Ministry.
He added that even their exams would be conducted by LUC, under the strict supervision of MMC.
As for the programme cost, Murtado said it would be RM180,000 and not RM200,000. “The fee is inclusive of accommodation. No hidden costs involved,” he added.
When the matter was referred to Hasan, he redirected the e-mail queries to one Dr Ghani in LUC for response.
[main photo taken from LUC website]
This is nauseating.
haha… I really love the heading of your post Dr Paga, well done.
well u all know who is MAHSA’s new Dean right? isn’t it Ismail Merican? So I guess what is being promised to the current Dg, the current deputy DG, etc etc. Haihz. Already on FB the only real opposition to 1care, MPCN, is being ‘engaged’ and ‘quelled’ by a certain high profile figure.
Soon or later, the healthcare system in Malaysia will be swamped with MO, especially in urban cities and towns. Unless doctors and trainees are willing to relocate to rural area for good, there will be so much competition for posts for future doctors like me.
Heartache, speechless.
I will say not to ask help from current DG as he is useless in solving the problem and you are wasting your time. Actually the high rank post of the Health Ministry like Deputy DG maybe relatives to the current corrupted politician. They just let it happen. Don’t think the medical school and 1 care problem are aborted. The fact is 1 care is still progressing ‘silently’ at the moment. Some doctors in private hospital actually are facilitating the implementation of 1 care. The Radio forum on Monday about 1 care could see almost 100% audiences were objecting it. 1 care is like lynas, the G is doing things silently.
YOU ARE 100% CORRECT..
This is a never ending story…Do we all hope AND trust all these medical Pe Degree will treat ourselves and our relatives…think about the medical quality..we are dealing with life at our hospital…God help our country..( a message to Dato’ Dr Hassan)..
wow, this is big news. and yet dont ANYONE care what is going on? My condolence to bolehland.
It never appeared in the mainstream newspaper! wonder why?
Dr Paga: for obvious reasons
They keep concealing the truth from the public…very sad about this..
Sometimes parents are just too stupid sending their children into those unknown universities. A lot of Malaysian’s parents are too ignorance as well. They don’t read and they don’t want to care. All they want is to have at least ‘a doctor’ in their family
Assuming that the quality of all medical colleges is up to standard, the fact remains that medicine is only really learnt in practice. There are no shortcuts. A flood of grads would also mean less supervision and practical experience for these grads as interns/housemen. You need to actually see patients… alot of patients… to gain confidence in calling the shots and making decisions.
double standard practice. greed. corruption. ABU!
I plan to go to Lincoln
http://www.lincoln.edu.my/courses/doctor-courses/doctor-of-medicine-md-luc-offshore-ivano-ukraine-.html
Ok-its cheap and more importantly recognized.
and when i grad i can put MD Malaysia so i dont get
the stigma of patients not coming to me.
If the teachers are all employed by lincoln,malaysia-I don;t see why ppl should complain so much.After all MMC has inspected and approved the school.
And also , I am jumping to a “bad” Ukraine/Russian school- remember this is a recognized Malaysian medical degree.
I think you got no idea what we are talking about. What “teachers” are you talking about? Do you really think that LUC have that many teachers to sent to Ukraine to teach you guys? pls check properly.
This sentence “Lincoln University College Off shore program has been approved by the Malaysian government namely, Malaysian Qualifications Agency ( MQA),Ministry of Higher Education ( MOHE ) and Malaysian Medical Council ( MMC ) , whose Officials have visited the respective universities and have certified that the educational level at these universities are of high quality and meet to the world standards” made my day again. If it is true , how come MMC do not recognise these universities http://mmc.gov.my/v1/docs/Jadual%20Kedua%2011-12-09.pdf? I wonder!!
Brandon, if you have no insight to process these information that Dr Paga has written, I am worry about how you can think around a medical problem and make a diagnosis.
I mean I am not jumping to a “bad” Ukraine/Russian school-this is a recognized Malaysian Medical degree
Brandon, pls listen to Dr.Paga and not those marketing people’s sweet talk, i myself enrolled in a local med school and regretting for not doing enough research. My advice is to go for a better international recognized med school.
i think no med school can get recognize before their 1st batch got reviewed.
and u are very lucky to found this blog before u enroll. anyway, the call is in your hand.
Dr, Pagalavan, I have an unrelated question. Recently MQA recognzied 146 chinese universities. My university was in that list, and I am doing medicine here now. Does this mean that mmc recognition will follow, or there is no guarantee?
I don’t think so. recognising universities and recognising medical schools are 2 different issues. MQA seem to be going around and recognising everything!!
[...] 2/03/2012, I wrote about this college http://pagalavan.com/2012/03/02/money-money-money-lots-of-money/which is offering an offshore twinning programme in Ukraine with 3 unrecognised universities but [...]
[...] Stuff Part 1 1. Lots of Money – Pt.1 2. Lots of Money – Pt.2 3. Current quality of medical doctors 4. Foreign doctor in MOH 5. [...]
How about the local LUC, is it recognized by MMC ?
Nope and it is another joke.
Yet PSD still sponsor students to do md course in LUC… They didn’t plan properly, do they?
It’s supporting the cronies!
I was thinking about doing my MD course at LUC. Reading this and all, I’m having my doubts whether or not I would be able to get jobs upon graduating. I don’t know what to do. Should I just forget about doing it an LUC or have things settled down now? I’m very confused
I don’t trust LUC
lm afraid this isn’t a comment infact more on question. doctor l am so passionate of becoming a doctor in the future and now l am slightly step into doctor career since l will make decission wheter lm going to take Science course in STPM or in MATRICULATION COLLEGE and so l want to ask you as a Doctor l would like to know the education path of becoming a doctor. This included the min. and max. qualifications to take medical courses once lm out from college and the total years l have to spend in University also how old would l be when l become the real doctor. That is all from me.
Please read all the article in this blog! The answers are all there
lm afraid this isn’t a comment infact more on question. doctor l am so passionate of becoming a doctor in the future and now l am slightly step into doctor career since l will make decission whether lm going to take Science course in STPM or in MATRICULATION COLLEGE and so l want to ask you as a Doctor l would like to know the education path of becoming a doctor. This included the min. and max. qualifications to take medical courses once lm out from college and the total years l have to spend in University also how old would l be when l become the real doctor. That is all from me