Malaysia To Have One Dentist To 3,000 Patients By 2020

PASIR GUDANG (Johor, Malaysia), March 28 (Bernama) -- Malaysia is expected to achieve a ratio of one dentist to 3,000 patients by 2020, up from the existing 1:6000, said Higher Education Minister Mohamed Khaled Nordin. The ratio could be achieved because 15 institutions of higher learning in the country were offering studies in dentistry, he added. "These institutions can offer 800 places to students annually, compared to the previous availability of only 632 places every year," he told reporters after opening the campus of the Vinayaka Missions International University College (VMIUC) in Bandar Seri Alam, here, Thursday. Khaled said 4,000 dentists were operating in the country now, but their number was inadequate for the country's population of 29 million. He also said that the Cabinet had approved a five-year moratorium from this month prohibiting other institutions from offering the dentistry discipline in order to maintain academic quality. This was to ensure that other institutions did not offer the subject and then pinch teaching staff from the institutions already offering the studies and cause a staff shortage and subsequently a drop in academic quality. On VMIUC, Khaled said the university college based in India would start operating in Pasir Gudang at the end of this year. VMIUC will be the first university college in Johor to offer studies in dentistry, equipped with the latest facilities at an investment cost of RM100 million. It is the last university college allowed to offer studies in dentistry and would take in only 50 students a year to ensure academic quality. -- BERNAMA