Press Statement MMC : No directive to reduce intake of medical students

PRESS STATEMENT : MALAYSIAN MEDICAL COUNCIL

1. I refer to the article published in the New Straits Times, on the 19 August 2014, Page 9 – “Drop in intake for medical degrees”

2. The Malaysian Medical Council (MMC) would like to clarify that all accredited medical schools in Malaysia have been given approval for a specific quota in terms of number of students to be enrolled every academic year. The quota is determined by their teaching capacity, and takes into consideration among others the lecturers to student ratio, and also the students to hospital beds ratio to ensure that students get adequate clinical teaching.

3. For the public medical schools in Malaysia the total size of the approved quota is 1,550 student intake annually, and is distributed among the 11 Public Universities with 13 medical programs (UM 180, UKM 200, USM 300, UPM 100, UNIMAS 120, UIA 140, UMS 90, UiTM 230, USIM 80, UNIZA 60, UPNM 50). The approved quota was decided based on their ability to comply with the accreditation guidelines for medical programmes.

4. MMC has never given any directive to any of the public universities/public medical schools to reduce their intake of the medical students. They are free to enroll the students in accordance with the quota approved for them, provided they are in compliance with the accreditation guidelines mentioned above, especially in relation to the students lecturer ratio and also the ratio of students to the hospital beds.

5. The issue of oversupply does not arise as long as the public universities comply with the approved quotas and the accreditation requirements, which is important in ensuring the quality of medical graduates so that patients are provided safe and quality care.

Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah
President
Malaysian Medical Council

23 August 2014