According to the Star article recently, there are 63 medical students who did not return last year. Each students are funded up to £1.1m each to complete their course. Thats £63m of tax payers money being wasted on ungrateful students in UK alone. This is simply unacceptable!

By all means, let us encourage our bright and young minds absorb as much knowledge, experience and skills as they could, but the government should also be vigilant in ensuring public money is well spent.

As for “Frusted JPA Scholars”, I am afraid his plight is littered with the signs of someone who has lost the spirit of altruism that may be embodied by the scholarship he was given. In his own words, “many will be offered positions in world-renowned healthcare institutions” and “For one, what is wrong with earning money?”. As a taxpayer, I feel I have a right to remind him/her that a JPA scholarship is a privilege, not an entitlement. So whilst although the new JPA ruling seems harsh and knee-jerk (due to poor foresight and planning…but thats JPA for you), I would advise “Frusted JPA Scholars” to put things into wider context and consider the moral and contractual duty he/she has with the government and rakyat. Go back and serve the nation!!

Do not complain about the penalty clause of RM160,000. That was a mistake of the government from 1970s. They did not revise it proportionately to the increase of fees. The clause is a “joke” it should be based on actual sum spent on you but it is not. The reason it is so is because the scholarships are reserved for children of people at “high places” (who can and will pay the penalty and not serve the govt), with a few given to the “lucky ones” like you. You are lucky enough to get a scholarship.

Do not complain anymore!!! For you information do you how many rural poor Malay children were sent overseas on 50% scholarship and 50% loan for courses that leave the unemployed with a loan to pay when they come back.

lets start by saying my parents are not rich, indeed my dad had to come out of retirement to support me. I got straight A’s in college, and am in the top 10% of my medical batch at uni here.
Despite that, I didn’t apply for a scholarship as my parents believed it should go to those who really need it (i.e. those who can’t afford at all). Also, my family fell in the bracket of not being quite poor enough for me and my brother to receive scholarships, nor quite rich enough to have contacts. i should say i’m not a malay (if thats relevant at all, and it SHOULD NOT be)

You can imagine the contrast over here, as many malaysian scholarship students in my course come from richer families then i do. One has a ferrari at home, another goes on holiday about 4-5 times a year. One JPA student here has a dad whos a doctor, and a mom who’s a dentist. Both my parents never got the chance to attend uni, but worked hard and saved up their whole lives for my education.
While I admit some students here are genuinely poor and deserve the need for a scholarship, there are MANY whom you would think can survive without it as their parents can certainly afford to pay for them. ’scholarship’ money thus goes to other expenses such as the newest PS sets, flatscreen tvs, regular weekend trips to London etc. While this may sound stereotypical or something I would say out of spite, it is the truth.

I have to take weekend jobs just to cover my rent. But i’m happy anyway, as i RECOGNIZE the opportunities i’ve got studying here in england.

This is what makes me angry. My brother also trained in medicine here, also privately sponsored. He was asked repeatedly to return to the country to serve, as a surgeon. I too have been told I should go back. The government constantly laments that we are unpatriotic or traitors?

This makes me sad. If you want people to serve the country, then please give scholarships to those who deserve it. It is frustrating seeing money (our parents taxes) been thrown around to richer kids who do not deserve it. It is just insulting, and a slap to our faces. There is a whole generation of privately funded but equally talented/ intelligent young professionals studying overseas who are not wanting to go back, as the government has snubbed us, or refused us scholarships, and instead give money (our parents taxes) to those who do not deserve it .
Is the country facing a ‘brain drain’? If so, ask yourselves why

What makes me even sadder is tht JPA students do not want to go home to serve. I did my electives in Malaysia, and it made me realise that training in UK is nowhere near enough to be competent to practice in Malaysia. The diseases are different.The patients are different. And the system is different. A fully trained ‘consultant’ in the UK will still be lost in a key Malaysian hospital.

To Frustrated JPA Scholar, just think about what you’ve said. People have paid for you to study abroad, and you do not want to go home.
I do want to go home. And the reason is simple. Its because my parents are at home. So are all my elderly relatives. These people are people we know, and they need good doctors.

I must admit, a doctor does get a lot more exposure working in M’sia. Hands-on skills, spectrum of diseases..I could have a list of things that oversease can’t provide. I have to admit again, another reason to work in overseas is the money. After all, we are only humans, we doesn’t lean over to the side who pays more? I’m not trying to provoke any anger but I’m telling the truth, you can’t deny this. Any M’sia graduates who are given a chance to work overseas, I’m not no one would decline it.

Chasing freshly graduated medical JPAs to go home isn’t a wise move. Personally, I think they should be allowed to stay overseas as long as they are taken into overseas training programme, and make them go back M’sia when they are finished as a consultant,

It is true that the spectrum of diseases is not the same in overseas and in M’sia. But every doctor who return to M’sia will have a transition period to adapt themselves, given a 6 months period I’m sure they can refresh their medical knowledge to adapt the local settings. One of the things that a M’sia graduate is not trained in is communication skills. Althought it’s not a big problem in M’sia as M’sia doctors are alway the ‘boss’ to their patient, I think as a doctor we are not just treating the disease. We are treating the disease, the patient and their family. The way overseas doctors communicate with patient is very different, and I think it’s better than local graduates. Do we not want these overseas graduates to take these skills back home?

Doctors to patients ratio of 1:1500, building more hospitals…what good is it to build plenty of hospitals when there are not enough specialists to train?? I don’t think having all JPAs back to fill these newly opened hospitals, with no proper/incompetently trained specialists is going to help the country. The reason I’m saying incompetently trained specialists is because of the government’s policy. Per-U/college graduates who did badly, some even failed their exams are taken in to ’special’ programmes, such as SLAB (or something like that), and they have all the good training and privilages to become a medical consultant in the shortest and fastest way. These people are then placed in hospitals to train fresh houseman. Think yourself, if you parents are admitted to hospital, do you want these guys to treat them? Honestly, I DON’T.

Chasing fresh HO to go back is not a wise move. Instead I think they should be allowed to stay as long as they are taken into overseas training programme. JPAs can call these guys back when they have finished as a specialists/consultant, by that time they will have the skills and technology to bring home for the benefit of M’sia. I’m not JPA scholars but I just want to give my opinion. I have been overseas for 4 years and I have seen many long graduated JPA/MARA or other scholars working here, they are married and have children. Why does the government not forcing them back since they have been outside for SO long. What’s that about?? If the government wants to call back scholars, these guys should be called back first.

One more point. All medical graduates from overseas have to serve government for a fixed period of time on returning. Why? If I were to return, I will want to work with government first to adapt myself. But I just don’t like the idea of forcing returnees to work for government when we graduated without spending government’s money.

I’m just sounding my opinion, there is no right or wrong with my arguments. They are purely my thoughts. I love Malaysia, but with the current government’s policies, there is no good for me to come back. I’m sorry.