No change to med student admission quota

KUALA LUMPUR: The admission quota of medical students to local institutions of higher learning has been maintained, the Dewan Negara was told.

Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said the admission quota of medical students allowed by the Health Ministry was 4,820 per year but the actual number of graduates was lower, about 4,000 per year.

“The ministry will continue to maintain the quota because there are many applications to study medicine and the fees set for local universities are cheap, so we are actually democratising education.

“We allow many to apply for medicine; if we reduce (the intake) in the country then of course some will have to go abroad and the cost is very high,” he said when replying to a question from Prof Tan Sri Dr Mohamed Haniffa Abdullah, Bernama reported.

Mohamed Khaled said 2,401 medical graduates were produced in 2020, 3,132 in 2021 and 3,934 in 2022.

The estimated production of local medical graduates for the next three years is 3,934 per year, with 2,281 from public and 1,653 from private higher education institutions.