GOV`T TO CHECK ON MEDICAL COURSES OFFERED TO MALAYSIANS IN UNIVERSITIES ABROAD

KOTA KINABALU (Sabah, Malaysia), Feb 16 (Bernama) -- The Malaysian
government is to check on medical courses offered to Malaysians by every recognised
foreign university to eliminate any doubts about their standard, Higher Education
Minister Mohamed Khaled Nordin said Tuesday.

He said a team of officers would be sent to each of these universities in the
hope that it would help to erase doubts about the quality and skills of doctors
graduating from there who would be serving in Malaysia.

The officers, comprising representatives from the ministry, student sponsors and
the Malaysian Medical Council, would make a thorough check on the medical
programme offered, the lecturers, the infrastructure facilities and the facility
for exposure of the students to patients, he said.

Mohamed Khaled spoke to reporters after performing the groundbreaking for a
housing project for the people of Kampung Lokub at the Universiti Teknologi
Malaysia (UiTM) Sabah campus in Menggatal near here.

He was asked to comment on newspaper reports today that the skills of more than
3,000 trainee doctors educated abroad undergoing housemanship in Malaysian
government hospitals was questionable as some among them were inefficient in
carrying out basic medical examination.

The reports said many of these "inefficient" trainee doctors were graduates of
foreign universities, particularly in Russia, which were recognised by the
government.

Mohamed Khaled said that owing to limited places in local universities, many
Malaysian students pursued medical courses in foreign universities, including in
Indonesia, India, Egypt, the United States, England, Russia, Germany and
Romania.

"Our local universities give preference to quality, with the ratio of one doctor
to four students, and, at the same time, medical students must have the
opportunity to undergo clinical programmes, and we need many hospitals for
this," he said.
-- BERNAMA