Entry requirements for medical school may be tightened

The Malaysian Education Ministry together with the Healthy Ministry is now studying on the possibility of tightening the minimum entry requirement for students who want to pursue higher education in medicine in the future.

According to Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam this proposal helps ensure that only truly qualified students would take up medicine and in the long run, control the number of new medical graduates entering the job market.

Currently the minimum entry requirement for a MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery) is 4Bs. Malaysia has 33 medical schools which produce about 5,000 new medical graduates each year.

"...we may raise it because a lot of students are getting A's now. We will also make this mandatory for students who are taking up medicine overseas," says Subramaniam.

The doctor to population ratio has now reached 1:600