PUTRAJAYA: Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam has requested the Education Ministry to look into ways to increase the intake of medical students in public universities.
He said many qualified students complained that they were not able to get places for medicine.
As such, he has held discussions on the issue with Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and Education Minister II Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh on Tuesday.
“I hope they can increase it (the intake) according to the capacity (of the universities),” Dr Subramaniam said at a press conference after chairing his weekly post-Cabinet meeting here yesterday.
“It is up to the various universities to decide,” he added.
In earlier reports Idris had assured that the Education Ministry did not instruct the reduction in the number of university places while the Malaysian Medical Council refuted that there was currently too many doctors.
MMC president Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the council approved an annual intake of 1,550 students for 13 medical programmes in 11 public universities.
He also said that there was no issue of “oversupply” if universities complied with approved intake quotas and accreditation requirements.
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