Here we go again and again and again………………Just when we are talking about oversupply of medical graduates soon , here comes another medical school. The following advertisement was in The Star yesterday, a new university offering medical course in the state of Perak. It seems it is a collaboration between the state government and a private sector. In the same advert, you will notice that this “university” is also offering “Foundation studies”, the most famous course currently in Malaysia which I have blogged in my previous entry. Almost every private college and some public universities are offering these studies as an easier route to do medicine etc. When other countries are moving forward with graduate studies , we seem to be moving backwards . I even heard that some private colleges are offering a 6 months foundation programme in order to do medicine. There is no standardised Foundation programme like STPM/A Levels/IB etc etc in Malaysia. The curriculum, exams and even the marks are decided by the college itself and of course, your seat is guaranteed!
Welcome to the education hub of SEA!! Malaysia Boleh! Lets see how many graduates are going to be jobless in the near future, in all popular field! We just have too many universities with questionable quality with too little job opportunities. Poor human resource planning. Only the best will survive………………….
Pagalavan's Avatar 
everytime i read posts regarding this matter i feel like i should kill myself
cuz its true 😦
i shud have quit medicine and followed my dad in his business
work hard dun listen dis ppl’s shouting..
I don’t know how they’re gonna attract students … are there still enough gullible parents out there who are willing to make their children become ‘doctors’ at any cost? Where these guys gonna attract lecturers from? Going rate for lecturers at private unis is RM8,000-10,000 per month if I’m not mistaken …. they’re gonna have to do better than that to attract real talent, not cast-offs from Burma, India and Indonesia. They will be competing with Taylors, Newcastle and other recently set-up medical schools for the same talent pool.
I grew up in the area where the uni is planning to have its campus, so was initially quite happy when the project was first announced in 2005/06 … but with the number of medical schools around now, I just don’t see how it can survive. Where are they gonna do their clinicals? UniKL RPCM already uses Ipoh GH. Are they gonna build a new hospital? Are they gonna send them to India as a twinning set-up?
Malaysia Boleh Mah…….. Just hire some part time consultants and here we are , MMC recognised! Newcastle is offering RM 16 K for senior lecturer post which I think is the highest so far and even then they are struggling to get lecturers. The big short CEO just visited my hospital last week to ask whether we can become part time lecturers in Newcastle, sounds desperate!
The patients will have semi-qualified docs to attend to them!
And perhaps screw up their health!!
Saturday newspaper reported that Mr Liow said no worry, our population will grow and the need of the doctor will grow as well. Doctor will NOT be jobless……
I guess the situation will worsen overtime.
Ya, sure. He talks nonsense as usual. The rate the doctors are growing is faster then the population!! Secondly, can the government create enough post in an exponential manner to support these doctors!!
thanks for posting this up dr.
It is shameful that children nowadays can’t decide what’s best for their future. Worse still, parents have such minimal knowledge on the current onslaught of incompetent med schools. It seems that their minds are still in the circa 1970-90s whereby having “dr” means everything! End up pressuring children into medical profession. how sad.
The future jobless doctors can always opt to do business, teach tuition, taking care of small kids, do available part time patient care, be a Mcd, KFC waiter when desperate, learn some earning skills or invest in something…
Yes, the time will come. I know of nurses who are working in petrol stations.
Wow. The number is climbing up.
I thought the government has already stopped giving new licence to open new medical university in Malaysia. This Memang Malaysia Boleh. At least they produce more talented badminton players so that we can cheer about
Arent the CEO of some of these blooming private medical university Drs or even specialists themselves? They should know the situation better than anyone else. Everyone loves money and more money! 🙂
Actually, most of them aren’t Drs themselves, although a minority might be. The majority are businessmen with political connections to the ruling party. My apologies if the following info is not up-to-date. I welcome any corrections:
Datuk Kamal Salleh was instumental in setting up IMU (when it was called IMC), and then later sat on the board at UniKL RPCM. He was UMNO MP for Wangsa Maju for 1 term. IMU is now owned by Khazanah and UniKL RPCM is now indirectly owned by MARA Holdings (although I think Perak state govt might still have some share in it).
AIMST is owned by MIC, UTAR is owned by MCA.
MMMC was set up by a joint venture between Manipal India and JVMC Corp. Datuk K. Pathmanaban, who was once the Dep. Health Minister and MIC vice president, owned (still owns?) 10% of JVMC Corp was was the first chairman of MMMC.
ACMS was set up by Dato’ Dr Zainuddin Wazir, a cardio-thoracic surgeon who quit the civil service to become a businessman. One of his companies, Synergy Healthcare Sdn Bhd, is involved in medical tourism for patients in Medan via Island Hospital.
The ex-President of CUCMS was Tan Sri Johari Che Mat, a businessman who was previously Director of INTAN and served in the Prime Minister’s Department and as Secretary General in the Ministries of Social Development, Domestic Trade and Education.
MAHSA was set up by Datuk Dr. Hj. Mohamed Haniffa, an ex-GP who ventured into the business side of things by setting up FOMEMA (Foreign Workers Medical Examination Monitoring Agency). FOMEMA was granted a 15 year concession agreement by the Government of Malaysia. I’m willing to bet all my Ang Pows, Deepavali money and duit Raya for this year that there was no formal tender for this.
IMS-MSU are linked with the PTPL Group of Colleges. Their chairman was (is?) Tan Sri Dr Wan Mohd Zahid Mohd Noordin who held the post of Director-General of Education of Malaysia in 1993, and was appointed Advisor with Special Functions to the Minister of Education in 1998. He has also sat on the board of multiple other companies, including Guthrie, Sime Darby and Amanah Mutual Berhad.
Taylors Education Group was (is?) owned by the MBf Group. The late Tan Sri Dr Loy Hean Heong was the founder of the MBf Group and I believe it’s still a family-owned business.
SEGi UC is owned by SEG International Bhd, a listed company. They also own the PRIME group of colleges. In their corporate info page for investors, 2010 was noted for the “launch of niche and high margin programmes such as MBBS and optometry degrees.” High margin = higher profit margin, for those of you not well-versed in the corporate lingo. Revenue for the 1st 3/4 of 2010 was RM 161 million, up from RM 127 million for the same period in 2009. Profit before tax was 40 million, up from 14 million for the same period in 2009.
Masterskill University College of Health Sciences is owned by the Masterskill Education Group, another listed company. For the third quarter of 2010, revenue was MYR 80.678 million against MYR 72.746 million a year ago. Profit before taxation was MYR 34.199 million against MYR 41.587 million a year ago.
Monash, Newcastle, RCSI (via PMC) are all overseas unis with a presence in Malaysia to make a buck. They wouldn’t be here if there was no opportunity to make money, just like they make money off the international students in their home campuses.
Good info! I have worked with Monash before and I can tell you that businessman runs the university and they only look at profit and when they can achieve it, the faster the better! So who cares of quality or lecturer ratio, the number of students must increase to give them profit and return of investment. The rest is not their problem!!
hey i wanna know if the medical system is so fuck up, do u have any suggestion for STPM leavers? I am a form6 biology student, if i manage to get cgpa 4.0, should i take medicine course in local uni? if i get lower than 4.0, what is the better courses? i’m interested in biology and math, ur advice is appreciated..
I think Chillax has given a good advise to you. The problem in Malaysia is that no one advises the students what is the need in the future. Many students only know of medicine, dentistry, engineer, lawyer, teacher and pharmacy. These kind of jobs are now becoming saturated and many jobless lawyers/engineers are already a reality, even pilots have become jobless now. The next in line will be doctors. Unless you have a real zeal for medicine and wiling to put up with all the frustration that lies ahead, forget about medicine.
As what Chillax said, jobs like Actuarist/Investment analyst are in hot demand nowadays. In fact, in US, actuarist is the no 1 job sort after. Biotechnology is another field that may have a good future but at the moment it is underdeveloped in Malaysia. Furthermore, please do not do Biotechnology from any of the local private/public universities, they are total crab.
spend your money on an american/australian/british BSc Economics, and become a Chartered Investment Analyst. You spend as much effort and money as medicine and you become 10x richer and enjoy a much better quality of life than a doctor. Add an MBA to that combo, and you’re on the corporate jet-setting life. Of course, you can’t bullshit your way through work like how half of our doctors do in locums and gps.
its not just medicine, its the life sciences industry. Too much dilution, thus global competition for services has made it cheap. In the future, this dilution will affect the aviation+tech+life sciences industry in such a way, that a 100 dollar ticket gets you to japan, and you get to see a top rheumatologist there, who follows up with you regularly via skype for non-urgent but important conditions. Molecular diagnostics (mainstream in 10 years time) will absolutely disrupt the way healthcare is delivered globally. Worried eh Dr Paga (who is, btw, a top rheumatologist in our country. respect)
Thanks for the comment and compliments. No matter how developed science is, the human touch is still the best.
Well said. The human touch is the best 🙂
I think Dr. Paga is doing a great job with this blog. A lot of students make career choices based on what they see on TV, what their seniors do and parents advice. This blog will provide a different perspective to students before they make a lifelong career choice.
I am truly amazed at how medical education is evolving in Malaysia. From once a very exclusive field where only the best can enter, to now seeing advertisements from unheard of private universities for medical degrees on bill boards along the federal highway. I have worked overseas and never have I come across medical education being sold like this.
I agree that students should look at other career choices other than medicine, unless they really have an interest to help people.
There are other fields and qualifications can offer better financial rewards with global mobility as what Chillax alluded to. Actuarial science, accountancy, corporate finance are good examples. Just remember not to go to the local Universities to study for these courses as their standards are appalling.
Dear PJ,
You said that the standards of actuarial science, accountancy and corporate finance in local universities are appalling.It also seems that the standards of medical education here is going down the drain.
Then , what high quality courses are available to students studying in local universities?
To be frank, the standards of local universities has gone to the dogs since the late nineties. UM is still holding on but deteriorating gradually as most of the senior Professors are retiring one by one. These senior professors have been there since 1960/70s when UM first started. Do you know that we have IT graduates from local uni who do not know about latest softwares in the market ? there were still learning what was happening 3-4 years ago!! Same is happening in many other fields as well. In one of the local uni, you can get an A/Prof by just publshing 5 papers and it does not matter what type of journal, in some low class journal will do!!
Heh heh, I already have 3 and 2 more soon on the way even before I become a consultant. Maybe I shld come home sooner rather than later 😉
Dear Supergoh,
I would not go to a local University if given a choice.
I would go for the University of London external programs where possible. If I want to be an accountant, I would study for the professional accountancy exams like ACCA and CIMA.
These programs are internationally recognized and you would not have issues getting jobs anywhere in the world.
They are also conducted in English.
The other alternative is to go a Singaporean University.
If local university is my only choice, which are the better quality courses available?
One that has a twinning course with a reputable foreign uni, making sure that ur degree is conferred by that uni and that they have significant input into the course (eg. lecturers, notes, curriculum etc). Even better if u can spend one year overseas, for personal growth if nothing else.
So, all in all, local universities’ products from any of the fields are going down the drain in an increasing pace like never before. That means by the time our children make it to the local university in 1 to 2 decades time, the standards are so appaling that they cant even secure a job.
So WHAT future do they have and WHAT should we as parents and future parents have to do from now on? Massive unemployment?
In my opinion, life is unpredictable and not as smooth sailing as for some. For the rich, they can seek education anywhere they want regardless of their results whereas for those unfortunate (not given scholarship) and poor they are sucked into our substandard education system.
So wanderer and supergoh, I dont think you have much choice. You have here people who criticize the local universities as well as those rich and fortunate who champion the foreign universities. And I believe neither of you have received satisfying answers. Instead there are more destructive and heart wrenching comments for you to swallow.
My advice to both of you are to concentrate fully on your STPM or A levels at the time being and decide your future later. Your results are your future.
I have finished my STPM and i’m pretty confident that i can get good result.. Now the problem is should i entrust my future on local universities? Because it sounds like there is no hope studying in local uni…
you can still study at local universities but make sure you also sit for some internationally recognised exams in whatever field that you choose.
Hi Dr Pagalavan,I Hv been reading most of ur topics in the blog .Now ,my main concern is about the Future of our health professionals both GPs and Specialists after if Bolehland Govt starts implementing the National Health Financing Scheme(According to Mr Liow ,it’s a great system for EVERYONE!).
seriously i feel worried about the NHF scheme .Need some info and explanations about it for you.
thanks!
Well, as usual most of the time we don’t get much information regarding this NHF untill it is implemented. I heard they are going to start off with 1Care system in 2014 which will incorporate GPs with public primary health care system. Only certain number of GPs will be included in certain areas and I am quite sure that GPs with Primary Care Diploma or degree will be given preference. It may be good or bad for the GPs. The existing ones may benefit but new ones may find it difficult to open a clinic in areas where there are already enough number of GPs. So, you may not be able to open a clinic in any area that you like unless you are willing to go solo without the help of NHF!
The intergration of private and gov hospitals will only happen many years later when the 1Care system is fully implemented. The way things are going with oversupply of doctors in years to come, the income of all doctors in Malaysia will gradually drop. That’s the reason I keep saying in my blog that if you are doing medicine for money then forget about it as in years to come, you can’t make much money in medicine.
from you
thanks!
If you want to succeed in the corporate side, quality is king. In other words, stop obsessing about degrees or where you get it from, but make sure you’re really good at what you do.
Plan your career paths to include a Masters at least. And, dont forget industrial experience. Develop your soft skills, communication abilities, explore new avenues, etc.
At the end of the day, its not just about money. It’s about satisfaction and happiness. Marry someone who’s earning too, but be prepared to share the domestic burden. Ive seen guys who hook up with working ladies, only to act like a real chauvanist and end up in a painful divorce. No point being a financial success but you lose the personal game. A divorce does not need to be a loss, but some ppl take it that way.
Read widely. Very widely. Dont stop at internet, facebook and blogs. Pick up a good story book, a management textbook, etc etc. Develop a mind steady enough to debate and challenge opinions.
When you do something well, and you are passionate about doing it, money comes naturally. But if you chase money, you end up being frustrated and pissed off.
What an all round well thought out blog!!