Wait a minute, I thought I heard there was a moratorium of new medical schools, announced last year!! Then what is this advertisement doing in The Star today?
University College Shahputra has decided to start a medical school. Anyone wants to become the dean? They have just advertised for academic position!!
Adding to my latest count , this will be the 36th medical school in the country with a total of almost 40+ concurrent programmes……………. for a population of 27 million!!
They have also added the following advert on their website:
I have said this many times that Foundation studies is a way for the college to attract students and to keep them in the college for various courses. Even though the curriculum is monitored by LAN but the exams are not standardised. The college themselves set, conduct and mark the papers.
I also saw this 2 page comment from MAHSA college about the jobless nursing graduates in the Star today:
I find it rather interesting of how the college is trying to justify things. Our Ex DG is currently the VC of MAHSA University. They claim that their nurses are highly employable and have inserted the names of nurses who have gained employment in foreign countries on the 2nd page of their “advert”. The confusion it seems is due to diploma in healthcare and diploma in paramedic (by other colleges) which are being referred to as “nursing” course. However, according to the info they have provided, the nurses to population ratio currently is at 1: 384 and the country is targeting 1: 200 by 2020. Now, let me ask you: if you are producing 12, 000 nurses per year now, when do you thing you will achieve the magic figure of 1: 200? I would say, probably in another 2 years ! So, isn’t the jobless scenario which is already beginning to happen now will only get worst?
God save the country……………………….
Pagalavan's Avatar 
Oh my goodness. When will this nightmare ends? Can you like tell my mom how scary this things go? She keeps on listening to stories of her friends, telling how secure the medical profession is. She claims that your speculations are hoaxes, but she doesn’t really sees that she is also in the main stream band wagon mentality that those who are in the medicine program can indeed earn bucks!
“My friend told me her nephew is an ENT specialist in some penang private hospital and he is earning over hundreds of thousands per month!”
Oh em geee, its what happening NOW!
Want her number? I’ll give it to you to kick some medical field sense into her!
Your mother is leaving in the past. The era of medical specialist earning RM100K/monht is gone. Specialist in Klang Valley nowadays are even happy by earning RM 20K/month! Secondly, does she know how a person become a specialist? Some parents still think that you can become a specialist after housemanship. They don’t understand that majority won’t even be able to get a place for Master’s programme in the future or even now. Even in this blog you would have seen comments of people who are frustrated not getting a place.
DR Pagal..I resign from Gov due to this birocracy..not easy to get to master right now..There is “hidden” quota..as I know exam is getting tougher and not everyone eligible to pass..But as usual our Prime newspaper keep saying we are lacking of specialist and we need to open new medical school..HOW LAME was that?
It’s just like how our Health Minister said that we need specialised nurses BUT the colleges are only training “general” nurses!! what crap!
Exactly Dr Pagal..
dr Paga,
why do MMA and MMC are silence on the mushrooming of medical school and also the low standard intakes of medical students?
because it is ALL politically connected. If you see this university website reagrding their background, you will see the answer.
and i don’t think that MMC/MMA has the power to govern over medical education which is bunch of crap. Every other country has a body that governs over medical education.
Disappointed with the Ex-DG, I thought he is a good soul but apparently not….
Well, he is being paid by them!
Lol why am i not surprised at all~
Sigh …. moratorium my hairy balls. I don’t know why things like this still piss me off so much, I should be used to it by now.
You can apply to become the Dean!
Oh my God..when will this thing be over..God bless this country…Keep on exposing this kind of news Dr Pagal..
Dr Pagal, i saw ur posts about doctors, nurses and pharmacists.
How about dentistry in the near future?
Will dentists be the same as the doctors,nurses and pharmacists?
At this moment there is a lot of vacancy for dentist but if you notice, most of the medical schools are already starting dental faculties including AIMST, MMC, UCSA, IMU, MAHSA etc etc. So, I feel the same situation will happen but probably not as early as doctors.
Sorry Dr Pagal but the situation that is happening to doctors will happen to the dental fraternity within a projected TWO to THREE YEARS time.
At the moment there is a total of roughly 100 dental U41 post in west malaysia and 30 dental U41 post on the eastern side. Annually, a typical dental faculty would produce roughly about 50-60 graduates. So as you can see, the amount of dental graduates produced by public and private uni’s per year far exceeds the number of post available.
Word in the ether is that the newly grads would be offered work on a contractual basis as well. Soon after, our ( medical and dental ) critical allowance would also be taken away just like the pharmacist’s because we’re already surplus to requirements by the MOH
well…
When in UK, we had a meeting iwth the THEN DG Abu Bakar, come back and serve he said.serve the Ministry… what is he now..
So is Ismail Merican…MAHSA, quality of education …nurses or even Paramedics…Drs you can guess…
we are not messed but irreversibly messed…
Just imagine if one has an Heart attack and enters the A&E, THE QUALITY of doctors taking care of you ever in Private sector in 15 yrs time…. please imagine and not hope..I think better dead athome
yang
Dr P, my sister did A-levels as a prep course to study medicine in the UK in this college.. because MARA sent her there. basically MARA simply sent students to any new mushrooming colleges (to support these ‘bumiputra’ colleges) and take a gamble with their students’ future. my sister said the college knows nothing about a-levels for medicine. for medical school applications in the UK, the a levels students basically need confidential reports to be submitted and the teachers NEVER did it until the last minute when in the end they ASKED the student to write it themselves… it was really awful. the quality of teaching given was horrible that many students had to resit their papers due to poor grades, when these students were initially top SPM students.
and not to mention accomodation provided as well… the standards were very poor. they tried to fit 14 students into one small single storey terraced house.
for this college to start a medical school…its just unimaginable.
Welcome to Malaysia where everyhting is politicised. Our entire education system has gone to the dogs.
Sadly no one seemed to care about it..or their voices being put downed..God save us all..
i saw both ads… its all about politics in our country. as far as i knw, shahputra is owned by our PM.
But i guess depsite all this, people will still do medicine, with this whole SBPA thingie coming along, doctors being offered high pay scale and allowances, it’s just too good to resist for many school leavers. Dr Paga,what is your take on this?
Who said that doctors are getting high pay scale with SBPA? It is just salary adjustment. Allowances are the same but I also heard that some of the allowances will be reviewed or cancelled since the basic pay will increase.
It is just a salary adjustment which occurs every 10 years. Remember, the promotions are never automatic when all the post are full!
You are right Dr Pagal..I heard COLA and “imbuhan Tetap” allowance will be cancelled or cut half..making whole salary slightly increase..thats what happen to our guard salay increase but allowance cut down like “senjata api”,”makan”,etc..it is all rethoric and polemic perse..what else do you expect..This is our country for real..
And the government will get more tax from the basic pay increase
Dr.Paga, thanks for the prompt reply. I shall ask my nephew to re-consider his desire to do medicine. He is more bothered of the title.I need to tell him to read your blog, if he is remains adamant, let him just learn things the hard way.
In fact most of the people who do medicine do it for that purpose!! That is the biggest mistake that they will regret later.
went for the MAHSA UNI open day. During the talk the dean of medicine said It is the no 1 medical and healthcare institute in the country. He did also mentioned that it is a hoax that the medical industry is over packed with doctors, he said that he quoted from the president of MMC and that he himself is a doctor and that the medical field will never get overloaded, there will be vacancies for doctors especially MAHSA graduates as according to him they are endorsed by University Malaya . When asked about international recognition he said that MAHSA graduates can work anywhere in the world as they will be sent to foreign countries for their practical and it will be listed and recognised by WHO by latest 2016. Is all this true ? He assured that the medical graduates will soon be introduced into UK style of training and other countries will accept them. again I am a student who is forced by my parents to do medicine . I opted for IMU , Manipal and a few others including MAHSA due to my parents pressure. Some of the above statement was also mentioned by the dean of Melaka Manipal when My parents met him. He said it was a lie and that he himself is very sure that manipal graduates will be getting the best medical education under the sun. He even said that their graduates are now in singapore and australia and also that amongst the new graduate housemen the melaka manipal grads are the head housemen and that many are already accepted into specialization in top raking unis in the world and many of their graduates are in foreign countries ? Dear Doctor I hate science subjects even though I am a top student I really dont like this . I tried talking to my parents the thing they say is that it is a pride issue and that if i become a doctor our community ( I am a ceylonese ) will look high up to us and that many MMA senior doctors who are datuks and datins are Ceylonese. I will be looked high and marriage will be easy with the Dr in front of me . I just can not imagine in which era are my family living in . please help me doctor . I am interested in child behavioral and development kind of degree. Why are some people soo backwards in thinking !
All medical school heads in this country will say the same thing, that they are the best medical school in the country!! They are selling their product because that is what pays them the salary!MAHSA have not even produced any graduates yet, so how does he know about their quality? MAHSA is not recognised anywhere in this world and thus you would NOT be able to work anywhere else unless you sit and pass the respective country’s entrance exam. Same goes to Manipal which is NOT even recognised in India!! Getting WHO listing is NO big deal. As long as the medical school is recognised in the respective country, it can be listed in WHO, it does NOT confer any international recognition. However, only med schools listed in WHO listing are allowed to sit for entrance exams in most countries. Don’t fall for all these rhetorics. If you read their brochures carefully, there will always be a statement that the college do not guarantee housemanship post!! BTW doing attachment in foreign countries DO NOT mean anything. Every medical school have something known as “Electives” where you can go anywhere to do an attachment. This is nothing new!! Most medical schools in Malaysia follow UK style curicullum!
I wonder whether the Melaka Manipal head can give you evidence on how many of it’s “students” are doing speciality in world ranking universities!!Oh BTW, being head housemen is not big deal. The most senior housemen will become the head!
Pls read this : https://pagalavan.com/2011/11/17/for-future-doctors-the-standards-of-medical-education-in-malaysia-and-its-acceptability-by-david-quek/. This was presented by Dr David Quek in a medic0-legal conference in KL in NOv 2011.
Your parents are living in the past! If you are not interested in medicine, then don’t do it as it will ruin your life. Actually the field you are interested in is in hot demand in any developing country. BTW, it is more difficult to get married nowadays when you are doctor. No one wants to marry you when most of the time you will not be at home!Unfortunately, many Indian parents think the same , mainly for social class reasons! Most senior doctors who are datuks and datins , got it because there are in politics/treat VIPs/Royalties not because they are just doctors
sir,
our art of medicine is being polluted badly!
God save us doctors and patients!
This MAHSA dean is talking thru his arse. Anyone can compare the number of medical schools Malaysia has with the number in developed countries on a per capita basis. I’ve posted it somewhere before but here it is again:
(Country) – (Medical Schools) – (Pop) – (Medical Schools per mil people)
UK – 32 – 62.2 mil – 0.5 ratio
US – 134 – 313.1 mil – 0.4 ratio
Aus – 21 – 22.8 mil – 0.9 ratio
NZ – 2 – 4.4 mil – 0.5 ratio
HK – 2 – 7.1 mil – 0.3 ratio
Singapore – 3 – 5.2 mil – 0.6 ratio
Malaysia – 35 – 28.3 mil – 1.2 ratio
And don’t forget all the Malaysians studying overseas who HAVE TO come home, there are easily 1500 of them each year. Countries like UK, Aus, NZ don’t have their own students studying overseas. There will be a glut in Malaysia. The signs are there already. The proverbial shit will hit the fan in the next 2-3 years.
Australia’s ratio is high because they increased their number of medical schools from 10 to 21 since 2001, and they are already facing problems placing all their interns. Some postgrad training in Aus (Surgery & Anaesthesia) now has to occur in private hospitals because there is no space in the public system due to the influx of doctors.
Any medical school can be listed in the WHO list. They just need to apply. That doesn’t mean they can work anywhere. If the countries you want to work in don’t recognise your medical degree, then you can’t work there unless you sit their entrance exam (if they allow you to). And even then, that just makes you ELIGIBLE to work there – does not mean you can get a job or even a training post.
I smell bullshit
Your best bet if you are interested in medicine (not $$$) is go right oversea if you parent can afford. I don’t see anything to be proud of graduating from all these institute offering low-no quality medical education.
If you are interested in child behavioral and development you actually don’t need a MD/MBBS. You can do psychology and then a PhD – which probably can get you a name of “doctor/doctorate” and work (at oversea) in a developmental behavioral peds center and get paid almost as much as a pediatric DB specialist (they dont get paid a lot).
Dr Pagalavan, I’m a medical student currently in the UK. I’ve known some friends in UK who did their A-Levels at University College Shahputra. From what I’ve been told, out of 50-ish (or probably less) students sent by the government to Shahputra to do A-Levels pursuing to UK, only about less than 10 who really made it. The rest are placed elsewhere, Indonesia etc due to their academic results. This is very heartbreaking since those who entered the college are all high achievers, only to be let down by the facilities of the college. The tutors and lecturers are mostly young and inexperienced, some of them are even in early twenties while the students themselves are already 18-20!
They can’t even handle A-Levels, how can they expect a Medical School?
Malaysia boleh mah……….. It is all about helping “bumiputera” to make money. Sorry to say! the country is going downhill because of this!In the end, it is the bumiputera who is cheating another bumiputera
Bumiputera and other races who are uncapable should be helped.The point is they need to be helped in an appropriate way.Do not blame all bumputera for whatever misconduct.
This thing happened not because of Bumiputera..its the people in administration should be brain washed!!!!!!!
i wonder what era are you living at.
I agree to help people who are incapable. But not at the expense of lowering quality of education or affecting medical practice.
I believe in survival of the best, if you are not fit enough then you get eliminated – especially in the field of academic medicine/education.
.HELP and pgy1 both have valid points.
There is a good rationale for affirmative action for students from a lower socio-economic background because they do not have a level playing field. It is probably a good thing that a proportion of scholarships and university places be reserved for such students. Unfortunately, affirmative action in Malaysia is race-based. Rich Malays still get scholarships and poor non-Malays don’t. So the poor non-Malays get given scholarship by Singapore and go study and work there and forever resent Malaysia and we forms part of the brain drain.
Now, most of the poor in Malaysia are still Malays even after 40+ years of the NEP. Why? Because UMNO has misused the NEP to make its cronies rich instead of providing help to those who really need it.
I do think however that once you start work, promotion should be based on merit only. If you place less competent people in positions of authority, they won’t be making the best decisions for that institution. That is common sense. Malaysia has race-based promotion in its civil service and universities (even though there is nothing in the constitution about this). This results in non-Malays leaving the civil service and universities due to frustration. Why bother staying if you never get rewarded for your efforts?
And to clarify, I do not blame Malays for the current predicament of our country. I place the blame squarely on UMNO for creating this culture, and to a lesser extent their running dogs like MCA, MIC and Gerakan for participating in it.
agree Nav
And I have seen alot of Malays that are top notch scholar and I respect them.
I just hope that UMNO or future government will at least change the current situation
Unfortunately, our great dedicated politicians themselves are in denial state (or rather selective denial), and continue to brainwash those who can’t see the bigger picture!
50 years ago our country and Singapore started on the same level, back then Malaysia was laughing at Singapore. 50 years later, who is laughing last?
Again, probably some politicians (who might read this) are already starting to give excuses in denial state…
Fvck race.
Help should be given to those who need it the most, irrespective of skin color or creed.
If a majority of the people who need it the most (read: are from poor backgrounds) are of a certain skin color or creed, then let it be =)
A disadvantaged brown/yellow/black kid should not be discriminated against over skin color!
The problem is the fact that the people in “administration” are there because of this “bumiputera” policy! So, it becomes a vicious cycle .
KKM has started sending MOs 2 Klinik 1 Malaysia with new Grade UD 1-1… as we expected…
As I expected. Which state is this? I know that most state’s KK MO post are becoming full.
dear Dr. Paga, thank you for your input on medical students n medical schools. from what I can gather they are all negative. I would like to know where to send my son for medical studies. UK and Australia is out of question as we cannot afford it. As I know UM is dofficult to get into if u r not bumiputra. my son is an exvellent student wth a good study attitude consistently being top of his form scoring A+ and As. If awarded a scolarship wth JPA he will b bonded for 10yrs which we fo not want for him. We would spprecoate your opinion on which would b a good medical school to send him to.
There r alot non bumi in um and why u dun want 10 yrs bond?10 years isnt long lol. Besides, u can do specialization
So … you cannot afford a good medical school overseas but you don’t want a scholarship that happens to come with a 10-year bond? This bond also means that your child will be guaranteed a job in the future when the oversupply of new doctors reaches its peak.
This leaves you with the option of a cheaper private medical school in Malaysia or going to Indonesia/Bangladesh/Russia/Ukraine. Read all the comments in this blog about the quality of medical education in those institutions and come up with your own judgement.
I don’t see why you do not want JPA scholarship. If I were you, I will go for JPA scholarship. YOu must understand that the market will be saturated in 3-4 years time and getting a job is going to be difficult. JPA and public university graduates will be given guaranteed and priority in job. Furthermore, 10 years is NOT long in medicine. You need that amount of time to become a specialist unless you want to leave immediately after your 4 years compulsory service which I would not advise!
The fact is this.our medical degrees conferred by private malaysian Unis are not recognised in other country except for Singapore if and only our kids r in the public Unis in the likes of UM,UKM,etc.i think so long as he or she is ready to face the great challenges staring straight at them,then there is absolutely nothing much to worry about which private local Unis they choose so long as they r MMC approved now or eventually for some.Its all about the passion and sheer hard work and as parents we can encourage but it really up to them.
There is no ‘etc’. ONLY the UM and UKM medical degrees are recognised by Singapore.
I stand corrected! Jk
Optometry in UiTM or MBBS in UCSA? which one of the do you think has the brighter future?? help me please Dr Pagal.
You mean UCSI? do what you are interested. In terms of future job prospect, I think optometry seem to be a better option.