By Siddharthan Smith
Every year, there are fewer than 500 seats allocated for students who wish to study medicine at public institutions. The intake process is based on the system of meritocracy and evaluation of interview performance.
The limited number of seats has made it impossible for thousands of STPM and matriculation students to get admission even if they are qualified.
However, the allocation of medical seats at private universities has paved the way for performers with much lower scores, but with money, to get admission.
The Malaysian Medical Council (MMC) and education ministry stepped in and imposed a few minimum requirements for medical graduates from abroad and from local private universities, which stopped the unregulated admission of students who wanted to study for a medical degree (MBBS).
The No-Objection Certificate (NOC) completely stopped students from the arts stream from studying medicine, yet the system failed to ensure that only deserving students get in as the high fees at private institutions toppled merit and allowed poor performers to use money to beat poor or middle-class students who performed much better.
We are all well aware that there is a surplus of doctors in the country. So why has the MMC not limited the number of medical seats in private institutions as they did for public universities?
While doctors queue up to be posted in government service, how can it be fair that students with excellent results are just not “lucky” enough to get admission, as mentioned by Teo Nie Ching, who said many had to forego their seats simply because they did not have enough funds?
Why is it that Universiti Malaya (UM) is allowed to allocate private seats for this course while hundreds of qualified students are robbed of the opportunity? Now other public institutions will follow suit.
If it is compulsory for medical graduates to practise in public hospitals for their training licence, why are we allowing a limitless number of private medical seats? Please be reminded that this does not include MBBS graduates from abroad.
The introduction of a common entry examination for graduates from local and foreign private institutions is not an overall solution to this issue.
We have compromised the quality of doctors over the past decades. Almost all medical degrees from Malaysia are not recognised in Singapore except those obtained from UM and UKM. Some twinning programmes are recognised in Australia, the UK and New Zealand.
But generally, students who studied at local private institutions can’t go far. Isn’t it then the duty of MMC to step in and cut down the number of seats made available to study medicine?
It is an old topic, yet we have failed to reach a solution to this problem. In such a scenario, the allocation of private seats for the medical course at UM is totally absurd and purely a “money-making” business.
If this profession is seriously monitored by the government, it should begin with the allocation of seats first. The MMC should set a specific number of seats for both local and private institutions every year and allocate 40% or less to all local private institutions.
Grant a higher percentage of seats under the public universities’ quota and allow deserving students to become doctors.
Dear ministers, instead of justifying the limited number of seats to study medicine at public institutions, clear this long-standing mess and do justice to all deserving candidates who wish to study medicine but currently can’t.
Siddharthan Smith is an FMT reader.
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.