Parents of students in the University Malaya Sabah (UMS) Medical School have expressed grave concerns about the quality of lecturers and teaching being provided to the extent that UMS is being referred to as “University Myanmar Sabah” because of the large number of lecturers from Myanmar with questionable qualifications to fill up the acute shortage of lecturers for the Medical School.
This is one complaint that I have received:
Recently, there has been a series of news reports quoting both the Federal Health Minister Datuk Chua Soi Lek and the Director General Datuk Dr Ismail Merican, lamenting over the questionable quality of some of our doctors. (Sin Chew Daily 7.8 2007 p 5 and 10.8.2007)
This is the same concern that many parents of the UMS Medical School students and lecturers now have with the presence of a large number of Myanmar lecturers, whose qualifications are said to be rather questionable.
The following is a recent conversation with a concerned lecturer of the University Malaysia Sabah (UMS) Medical School who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Q: Currently, how many lecturers are there in the UMS Medical Faculty, and how many of them are foreigners?
A: There are around 41 lecturers and 2 medical officers. Out of 41 lecturers, there are 19 Burmeses, 4 Indian nationals, 1 Iraqi and 1 Indonesian Chinese. Two medical officers are also Burmeses.
Q: Is it true that some of the lecturers are not qualified or whose qualifications are doubtful and not recognized by the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC)?
A: The University has the right to employ any expatriates to be their lecturers regardless of their qualification if the university is short of people with the required expertise. Their qualifications might be doubtful, but then with the request of the university, ‘special consideration’ is granted by MMC. Malaysian system is very ‘interesting’. If you are a foreigner and your degree is not recognised by MMC or JPA, you can still be employed and recognised as a specialist by the Ministry of Health (MoH) or any university as a contract employee.
Unfortunately if you are Malaysian but your degree is not recognised by MMC or JPA, you absolutely have no chance to be employed as a specialist by the MOH or any of the local university.
Normally for any expatriate to be employed by MOH or any university, they must have first obtained/granted clearance from JPA first. Once they have the JPA clearance, they could then apply for the work permit in their home country prior to coming to Malaysia.
However, these expatriates can get employed directly under UMS as a ‘temporary staff’ while waiting for JPA clearance. Once these expatriates have their JPA clearance, they can then have their temporary status convert to a full three year contract.
There is a case of a “specialist” from Myanmar who came to UMS as a ‘temporary staff’ six months ago. He was recently discovered to have committed fraud by submitting false documents in his application to UMS. This inevitably gives rise to a series of questions like:
- How could someone with false documents get employed by UMS as a ‘temporary staff’ and whether UMS made an effort to conduct a background check on the applicant before they hire someone?
- Does UMS have a vetting committee before they employ someone? How could someone with a false document could bypass JPA and start teaching our medical students? How could someone not registered with MMC be teaching our next generation of hope?
- Most of the Burmese doctors do not even speak proper English.
Q: Is it true that the clinical facilities at the Faculty are also very much lacking.
A: School of Medicine in UMS is lacking both facilities and teaching manpower. About the facilities, we are currently allocated with a very small ‘teaching space’ in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) in Kota Kinabalu. As we all know, QEH is a small and congested hospital with intensive admission. The patients are sleeping along the pathway and nurses station. There is really not much room for teaching.
The UMS Medical School has a small, temporary clinical year teaching site just opposite the QEH car park. But the State Health Director has given her ultimatum of taking it back at the end of 2007. Basically the UMS Medical School will be losing its only teaching site in QEH at the end of this year. This is rather sad indeed in view of the fact that the Medical School has spent RM1 million on this site for the past 2 years and it is going to be flushed down the drain soon.
The Medical School is currently short of manpower for a few reasons:
1. The Ministry of Health is not deploying any experienced doctor to any university while young doctors cannot leave MOH, thus leaving most of the MOH pensioners applying for the job.
2. Lack of cooperation from the State Health Department. It takes many months for State Health Department to give their blessing for any UMS staff to work in QEH. There are just too many red tapes and too much paperwork. Apparently the MoU between MOH and UMS does not exist. Unlike in other universities (UIA, UPM and others), they are very good smart partnership.
3. There is incompetent projection from Medical School. Many QEH doctors are reluctant to join UMS because of incompetent projection from the Medical School. First, no doctor is currently allowed to start their clinical work in the QEH, many QEH doctors are also wondering why. Second, one year ago, there was one UMS staff working in HQE. Unfortunately, one of staffs from HQE in the same department committed medical negligence. However, that staff from QEH did not face any disciplinary action. Instead, the innocent staff from UMS was sacked from HQE without any explanation. The QEH staffs are very reluctant to join UMS because they are afraid that they may be a victim for their fellow colleague’s mistake. The UMS Medical School did nothing to fight for their poor staff. Hence, why do you think anyone in his or her right frame of mind would want to join UMS? Would you join a company which does not give you any welfare?
4. Sabah is too far from West Malaysia and most of the West Malaysian are reluctant to come here.
Q: How many students are there in the Faculty now, and when is the graduation for the first batch of students?
A: There are 220 students. First batch is 30 students who will be graduating next year.
Q: How would you describe the situation in the faculty and who is responsible?
A: Well, the boat is fast sinking but the Boss continues to live in his own fantasy. In as far as I’m concerned no one else except for the Dean of the Medical School who is Prof Dr Osman Ali who should be blamed for all the mess in the Medical School.
#1 by witoutprejudice on Tuesday, 14 August 2007 - 2:04 pm
sometime i m too afraid to open pages from blog.limkitsiang.com, malaysia today and malaysiakini.com. everyday the country is full of shit lay by no other but some of the ministers.
i am wondering if i m still living in malaysia or another hell. how come the govt end up such a big mess and best of all, the PM said “Aku tak tahu”.
now we have a 3rd mentality with HP6 govt and now with unqualified lecturers? i almost advice my nephew to join UMS else it will be a disaster. we have too much of white elephant, over run projects and bail out.
time to change these ….
time to change the vote to those who deserve it. BN just lost another vote. i hope the readers can come together and make the biggest change to the govt. give them a biggest surprise of the century.
#2 by Jamesy on Tuesday, 14 August 2007 - 2:05 pm
I don’t think Malaysia is even in the top 1000 universities ranking in the world by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
What kind of future local doctors are we producing?
Dr. Boleh?
#3 by ADAM YONG IBNI ABDULLAH on Tuesday, 14 August 2007 - 2:08 pm
Dear Sir,
i am sorry to note that your comments on the above has a rascist tone towards the nationality of other countries. this perception has to be corrected and need to be corrected.
i am impressed that some of the foreign lecturers are as good if not better than our local graduates from our local varsity.
this perception is WRONG , and in as much as you advocate democracy, hope democracy is allowed in here.
perception that oversea chinese in malaysia are tin mine labourers, BUT MANY ARE second generations born and bred in malaysia and are professionals
perception that southern indians are in malaysia as rubber tapper and road builders, BUT MANY ARE SUCCESSFUL LAWYERS and entreprenuers.
i beg to differ SIR, that there are many highly qualified burmese, sri lankans and indians. AS A MATTER OF FACT, THE INDIANS ARE HIGHLY REGARDED AS TECHNOLOGY WIZARDS as like the silicon valley of USA, where our msc failed miserably.
if for reasons, fraud have been detected in the initial application, the fingers point to the administration of the university.
Similarly, here in west Malaysia, we have ample of malaysian with Doctorate , and so called mail study from some universities in the pacifics. some even addressed themself as datuk dr. xyz. BUT they dont even have the first degree.
those from the phillipines are maids.
those from china are call girls.
those from indonesia are maids and criminals.
those from india are labourers.
SUCH TUNNEL VIEW OF NATIONALITIES SHOULD NOT ARISE. SIR.
IT is because, we have such narrow vision that put shame to the real issue of mankind.
similarly,many malaysians are working in the middle east as nurses.
But equally, not all malaysians are nurses.
thank you. SIR.
#4 by witoutprejudice on Tuesday, 14 August 2007 - 2:16 pm
ADAM YONG IBNI ABDULLAH
this is not about the burmeses, indians, Iraqi and Indonesian. it is not about the race. it is about the lackadaisical attitude in the govt in solving problem. instead of looking real solution, they just do whatever to “selesai kerja” or for the sake of complete the job without considering the problem arises or consequences.
#5 by ADAM YONG IBNI ABDULLAH on Tuesday, 14 August 2007 - 2:31 pm
witoutprejudice.
due respect sir, than highlight the rot in the adminstration of the said univeristy , BUT , NOT naming it as University Myanmar Sabah.
with one complete generation of malaysians robbed of English as the language of education. the problem started there.
even in non tertiary education, you may care to check the teachers profficiency in English. In primary school, some of the students have better command of english than the teachers. because i belong to the age where i had to learn grammers and tenses.
still i beg , we should not generalise nationalities per se.
MR. NELSON MANDELA- a south african is an outstanding person .
#6 by smeagroo on Tuesday, 14 August 2007 - 3:06 pm
YOU should thank God that they only roped in Myanmars and not Abu Sayyaf fellas. Since Sabah is now no longer Land below the Wind. More like Land of Thieves.
#7 by madmix on Tuesday, 14 August 2007 - 3:44 pm
That is the trouble with opening medical schools left right center like opening kopi tiams. It is easy to put up the buildings and equipment, but it is not easy to hire good medical lecturers. The highly qualified and experienced specialists are well entrenched in MOH or long established unis, or making mega bucks in the private sector. That leaves only the few freshly minted specialists or retirees who stay a few years, and those from low income countries like Myanmar and Bangladesh. The universities simply cannot afford to pay the specialists from developed countries as they probably expect at least five times what the Myanmar s are getting.
#8 by hasilox on Tuesday, 14 August 2007 - 3:45 pm
What University Myanmar Sabah? Our standard is dropping damn fast. Should qualify for MALAYAMAR soon!
#9 by madmix on Tuesday, 14 August 2007 - 3:47 pm
Further to the above comment. The answer is simple: do not open any more medical schools, but strive to improve the quality of the existing ones. The Sabah school should be closed and the students transferred to other centres and the local lecturers and good foreign ones absorbed into them as well.
#10 by ihavesomethingtosay on Tuesday, 14 August 2007 - 3:55 pm
This is unbelievable, “First batch is 30 students who will be graduating next year.” I hope they don’t get posted to Muar for their houseman ship, rather, I hope all of them will be posted to the constituency that Dr. Chua Soil lek contest. This has nothing to do with racism as ADAM YONG IBNI ABDULLAH would have believe, but rather the quality of the doctors we will be getting, and if Adam is alright with that, they should all be posted to his town.
Adam, this essay is about the quality of the doctors we will be getting, our deplorable education standards and system, and that no one seems responsible, this is not about some racism that belittles other race.
#11 by sheriff singh on Tuesday, 14 August 2007 - 4:15 pm
It is not about targeting any particular nationalities. Its about WHY there are so many foreigners employed in that Medical Faculty (61% 25/41) particularly WHY 46 % (19/41) are Burmese?
If these expatriates are very qualified, there would not be an issue. The concern here is that they are NOT qualified and hold dubious qualifications which might not even be recognised by the MMC. And they cannot speak English well enough to be understood. And these unqualified “doctors” are teaching our doctors.
The other issue is WHY Universiti Malaysia Sabah employs such unqualified people? If they cannot get qualified teaching staff, then they should NOT have a Medical Faculty at all. How were these foreign lecturers recruited?
The Ministry of Higher Education should reassess their aim of making Malaysia an education hub when we cannot get qualified teaching staff to teach. We will be doing everyone a disservice.
By the way, what is the cut-off points for entry into the Medical Course in UMS? It is also possible the students themselves may not be of the quality required.
However, under THES criteria, the UMS Medical Faculty would score very high for having alot of foreign lecturers.
#12 by Kingkong on Tuesday, 14 August 2007 - 4:19 pm
My Myanmar orthodontist
There is some sense in ADAM YONG IBNI ABDULLAH’s comment as we cannot judge a person’s ability by race or degree.
I have a story to tell in relation to my Myanmar orthodontist.
I lost my side upper front tooth due to old age and was then using a denture which was quite a nuisance. I then thought of a tooth implant.
I consulted a well known British degree holder dental surgeon in a reputable hospital. He was good and honest to tell me that he got only two experiences in implanting teeth down stair but had none on up stair. He wanted 5000 ringgits. Oop! I don’t quite like the idea of no experience on the up stair tooth.
I consulted a dental surgeon in Singapore who wanted Sin D 5000 excluding other expenses. I can’t afford it.
Then this Myanmar orthodontist who did many tooth implants came along. Some of my good friends had that done from him who was also our sports club member. Again Myanmar graduated orthodontist does not sound comfortable to me. My prejudices? maybe! Ok! I observed the results of those who had seek treatment from him for almost a year. The result was positive. Then, one day, I really could not tolerate my denture any longer, I got him to get my tooth implant done and it was completed within an hour or so and he charged me only 2000 ringgits. I am happy with it since I have been using it like a real tooth for the last 9 months.
Yes, the ability and experience counts irrespective to race or types of degree obtained.
When I related my story to a friend who is a retired dentist trained in Australia in a wedding dinner, he was surprised and scared me to death the side effect one would get if it was incorrectly done by an unqualified fellow. I told him if I were to seek his advice, the implant probably won’t happen.
Please judge a person by his knowledge, ability, and experience before we conclude him simply by the cover.
#13 by citizen on Tuesday, 14 August 2007 - 4:24 pm
Major flaw:
“Q: Is it true that some of the lecturers are not qualified or whose qualifications are doubtful and not recognized by the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC)?
A: The University has the right to employ any expatriates to be their lecturers regardless of their qualification if the university is short of people with the required expertise. Their qualifications might be doubtful, but then with the request of the university, ‘special consideration’ is granted by MMC. Malaysian system is very ‘interesting’. If you are a foreigner and your degree is not recognised by MMC or JPA, you can still be employed and recognised as a specialist by the Ministry of Health (MoH) or any university as a contract employee.”
When you get half past six construction workers to build bridge, you’ll hear bridge cracking, building falling, etc. When you get half past six medical specialists, what do you get? I’m not belittleing any race, but the recruitment procedure is a major flaw. You can even get low standard recruitment from mat salleh country with such procedures!
#14 by citizen on Tuesday, 14 August 2007 - 4:45 pm
I accidentally hopped into following articles supposedly written by a doctor:
http://hmatter.blogspot.com/2006/02/medical-school-and-maintainence-of.html
http://hmatter.blogspot.com/2006/03/mmc-recognised-medical-schools.html
Old articles, but by all means explain why the ministries was doing such a bad thing to our society.
#15 by cg on Tuesday, 14 August 2007 - 5:14 pm
To speak honestly, I’m terrified with the medical school qualities in the country and if I or any of my family have any medical concern, I’d rather advice them to visit the doctor in our neighbour country rather than local doctors. Probably might still go to some private hospitals, but definitely not GH.
Now education system is a total failure, next is medical system, police system…… Do we have any successful system at all other than the human trafficking and corruption system?
BN has loss many votes since long time ago and more to come I believe, the country is loosing talented youngster, next is the source of income, investors…… What else can we loose more?
The more reality and truth I discovered, the more my heart bleeds. Change the gov before our beloved country get ruined until a state that is not recoverable.
#16 by AhPek on Tuesday, 14 August 2007 - 5:23 pm
When you have a medical school staffed by 46% Burmese with dubious qualifications you are not going to improve medical service in the country.You probably could worsen the situation if one is going to produce half past six medical graduates.
Adam I don’t think this article has racial connotations.That this unfortunate project came about can also be very likely
done to line someone’s pocket.Who cares if we’ve enough local specialist to man the set up.Build and I’ll get my commission.Such is the modus operandi in Bolehland.
#17 by ADAM YONG IBNI ABDULLAH on Tuesday, 14 August 2007 - 5:28 pm
dear fellow bloggers/ writers.
POINT THE FINGERS SQUARELY AT THE ROOT CAUSE OF THE PROBLEMS.
THE PROBLEMS ARISED FROM THE APPROVING AUTHORITIES.
THE PROBLEMS ARISED FROM THE UNIVERSITY ITSELF.
THE PROBLEMS ARISED FROM THE GOVERNMENT OF THE DAY.
NOTHING TO DO WITH ANY NATIONALITIES PLEASE.
same parallel with the barisan nasional government./opposition party.
why blame lim kit siang who is a chinese.?
why blame karpal singh who is a sikh.?
why blame najib who is a malay .?
why blame samy vellu who is an indian.?
why blame kitingan who is a kadazan?
BECAUSE MALAYSIANS VOTE BARISAN TO BE THE GOVERNMENT.
BECAUSE MALAYSIANS ARE EASILY TEMPTED AND GULLIBLE BY MATERIAL INDUCEMENT . eg by election in machap and ijok. by removing the ht tower, by donation of money to chinese school, by repairing the roads- Barisan nasional had the day.
YB LIM,
THE SYSTEM FAILED. ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS.
OPPOSITION will fail if it does not see the bigger picture.
MALAYSIANS DESERVE THIS, BECAUSE THEY VOTED FOR BN.
but unfortunately, this will not change in this coming election,but at least get the point across, that a credible opposition in numbers are ABLE to check and balance any abuse of the system.
even private university hired foreign lecturers. BUT, their selection criteria is good. any foreign lecturers of asian nationalities in limkokwing university ?
lim kit siang can do a check.
#18 by ADAM YONG IBNI ABDULLAH on Tuesday, 14 August 2007 - 5:46 pm
there are always two sides to a coin.
i only appeal that we respect each other despite our differences.
in any nationalities or race- there are the good and the not so good.
generalization is uncouth.
my sri lankan friend is an engineer working for microsoft .
#19 by ADAM YONG IBNI ABDULLAH on Tuesday, 14 August 2007 - 5:50 pm
my vietnamese friend is a major supplier to Ikea of Sweden and based in ho chin min city.
my chinese partner in suzhou in china helps build hospitals for the poor in the villages.
so not all are factory labourers. this is my point.
if it differs from yours. i apologise.
blame the voters who vote for the government they deserved.
#20 by UFOne on Tuesday, 14 August 2007 - 10:02 pm
There are too many universities in Malaysia. So many that there are not enough geniuses to go around to educate. If every state has a university, that would make it 14 universities. And if every specialised field has a university, that would mean any Tom, Dick and Harry can be a graduate.
There is a difference between teaching real life lessons and lessons from the books only. In the case of a doctor, the book can tell you one thousand and one treatments for one particular disease. When he goes to the ward, he discovers through experience that only one treatment works and this treatment is not mentioned in the books. Foreign lecturers or doctors should be given a period of attachment in the hospital to familiarise themselves with real life situations. From there, they will be able to tell the medical students what to look out for. Local doctors who are attached to the hospital should be utilized and be given the chance to teach the medical students in the universities and to share their real life experiences. It does not have to be the consultant or the specialist to give the lectures because they are always so busy. Even the medical officers and the housemen can do so.
University students who major in medicine should have the heart, soul and spirit to want to help the sick. Not because they want the powerful title. Not because their parents want them to. Not because it makes them look great. Once they have the correct attitude, I believe they will search for all the correct answers and they will not settle for anything less. Genuine medical students are very hardworking. They would not behave like the typical youngsters who lepak their time away. Therefore both the ones who teach and the ones who learn are very important. One can’t do without the other.
#21 by Jonny on Tuesday, 14 August 2007 - 11:26 pm
don’t worry.
too many universities built (lots of infrastructure, development, purchase of equipment = lots of commission money to be pocketed) – and we still lack of manpower to teach?
OK. just lower the standards. Make it easier to become lecturer / teacher. So many unemployed grads who can’t make it in the private sector … rope them in. get them in as teachers / lecturers.
don’t bother about the Taiwan grads. their degree and qualification not recognized. Standard is lower than our minimum requirement here.
I’m still amazed the Higher Education Minister said he would want to check whether the Wong-fella has got his scholarship sponsored by government. This is really a laughing stock in the Chinese community. Dream on. Taiwan certification, not recognized.
just continue on with what we’re doing. Some day, these taiwan, US, UK grads will come up with inventions and Intellectual Properties for the big MNCs of the world. And we shall end up buying from them la.
No need be sour over this. It is us who said, “Kalau tidak suka Malaysia, boleh keluar”. This is uttered in the parliament. And it is not even seditious. and not chargeable under ISA.
Maybe there is immunity for monkeys in the zoo.
#22 by Woody on Wednesday, 15 August 2007 - 3:01 am
Not only the restaurants/hawkers stalls are full of foreign workers, the Universities also too are the same.
Like the restaurants with foreign workers, they do not speak english, do not understand what you want and the food taste yaky.. then what do you expect of the lecturers in the UNI?????
#23 by rejoicegs on Friday, 17 August 2007 - 3:19 pm
I would like to refer to the letter entitled “University Myanmar Sabah†posted 14th August 2007.
In a way I agree with Mr. Adam Yong that the writer’s comment about hiring Myanmar lecturers has a little racist tone in it. Regardless of whether he is a staff at UMS or a staff of Queen Elizabeth Hospital, I reckon that he is (or was) a doctor. It is quite sad to see that a person of such a position can have such a narrow vision towards fellow colleagues and also the education system of his own country.
I’m an expatriate and I have been teaching at UMS Medical School as a specialist for quite some time now. Prior to joining UMS, I’ve been a specialist in Myanmar as well as a few countries and I have seen quite a number of medical institutions along the way. From what I see, UMS Medical School does not differ so much from various medical schools that I have seen locally and overseas.
All of us expatriate clinicians at UMS MUST be registered by MMC. MMC is NOT a body under UMS, so its decision is NOT relied on the interest of the university. To say that MMC gives special treatment to university staff is NOT true at all because our applications took about 4 months to be approved.
As I read through the paragraphs, I found out that the writer very much sounds like someone who is so frustrated with the system he is in at the moment. Someone close to him, (or is it himself?…), was barred from clinical practice by Queen Elizabeth Hospital one year ago (he said this himself). The hospital will not sack someone without any valid reason. Myanmar doctors from UMS have started clinical practice at two major hospitals in Kota Kinabalu and so far none of us has encountered any problem. It is NOT the issue of so many Myanmar doctors in UMS. It is because he is upset with something or someone at the workplace. This is so sad indeed.
To say that university can hire people regardless of their qualification does not hold any truth. Otherwise, the university would not face a shortage of staff because it can hire one person today and another one the next morning, everyday. Temporary appointment in UMS is issued so that specialists do not go anywhere else after having passed the interview. Our application to work in Malaysia then goes through the same long process of evaluation and assessment through the relevant authorities. I was informed that it’s a bit difficult to attract Malaysian to move in because they demand very high position and salary. The university has to resort to recruiting trainee lecturer for that matter.
I can assure you, I found that UMS medical students are as good as other students from other medical schools. You can argue that I am biased, but the report from external examiners about the excellent achievement of UMS medical students doing Medical Elective (locally and overseas) speaks volume of the true reality here.
In my opinion, although UMS Medical School is only on the 5th year of operation, it already has all the basic necessities to function as a full pledge medical school. I am ashamed to hear that you as a doctor yourself think that all those equipments, all the clinical skills labs, is still not sufficient to train students to become good doctors. As for the Clinical Block at HQE, if you keep your head down, smile and greet people, they will share with you that it’s been decided that UMS will continue using that place for a long time to come. If you keep your head down, smile and greet people, they will also share with you that UMS and MOH did sign an agreement back in 2003.
We expatriate will eventually be gone from this country one day. What worries me is people like you who belittles your own kind whereas you should be the one helping to plan for the future of medical education in your country. Thank you sir, and good luck to you.
#24 by kelvinric on Friday, 17 August 2007 - 11:46 pm
As a student of UMS medical school, we known as SPU, i would like to left some reply regarding this matter.
In my opinion we are new if compare with other university but still as a new school i think that we are quite good. Furthermore, since i was here last year. i saw a lot of improvement and the improvement still ongoing. Maybe our school policy might not identical with other school in Malaysia, but i think our program have advantages also. In an example we have some program that we knows as Health promotion that we are sent to somewhere in Sabah to serve for the community. In other word i would like to say that we are unique that we are very close to the community and we really have skill to survive in different environment . although i am still in pre-clinical year and haven’t expose to clinical year yet, i did heard from seniors that said it is good and Sabah is a good place to practice and learn medical knowledge.
Finally i can say that i am very confidence to the school and my future, so for the parent who see this blog please be calm and no need to worry about your children in 1st year expecially.
#25 by umsstudents on Saturday, 18 August 2007 - 12:52 am
We are a group of clinical year medical students from Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) and these are our personal views.
We admit that we have our own limitations and weaknesses, just as any other medical school, BUT, this does not mean that we are incompetent. Learning medicine is very much dependent on one’s own initiatives and hard work. At university level, we cannot expect lecturers to continue “spoon-feeding†the students. What we can do is to strive for excellence and work even harder.
No one can ensure that all the apples in one basket are perfect. We all have our differences and that makes this world so colourful. There are still a lot of good doctors from Myanmar and also other countries.
In a family, when the parents quarrel, the children will be the ones who are caught in the middle. This is our situation!
Instead of blaming each other, why don’t we unite together and fight for our future? Give us a chance to grow.
#26 by ascap on Saturday, 18 August 2007 - 8:09 am
i’m a medical student and this is my personal point of view.Burmist lecturer were not that bad actually. You can’t expect to have all the best lecturer coming to you, to teach you and you’ll become the best.
The fact is, UMS medical student nowadays put lot of effort even more than the others to cope with their enviroment and learn as lot as they could to achieve the quality of standard to become a good and safe doctors.
Learning medicine is not like learning at school where teachers come and teach, learning medicine is learning by oneself guided by the lecturer. The process of learning by this way is the one that create a good and safe doctor. We are independence and we use our precious brain to achieve that goal to become a doctor.
In fact, when we enter the clinical years, the one who are teaching us the most in the Specialist doctor from HQE. Most of our bed side teaching were done with HQE lecturer. Learning medicine is all about bed side teaching. And we learn a lot from them. It’s not right when this article reflect our school like we are only teach by the burmist lecturer.
For the claim of unqualified burmist lecturer, i as a student did not know about the administration politics or whatsoever but what i know is that the burmist lecturer were actually good because they have lots of clinical experience and they sure know a lot. They are actually a good doctors. Most of them speak good english.
This article is not fair. We as the student who are the one struggling here and search and learn a lot to become a doctor. We are the one experiencing the learning in medicine. So for me, UMS medical school student will not become doctors if they were not ready or safe. What our lecturer said to us is, ‘ you will not be a doctor, until we and the community feel that you are a safe doctors. and for that, we are training you all to become a safe doctor’. We will not be a doctor if the burmist did not teach us good. And we have enough hard time studying medicine, no other political pressure needed.
#27 by e-spotter on Saturday, 18 August 2007 - 2:45 pm
Do you think your English is any better? If you think you can ‘spot’ others…you are easier to be ‘spotted’….remember????? Next time don’t cut your nose to spite your face, in other words…those who live in glass houses should not throw stones or you will end up with…an EYE 4 N EYE….
#28 by spubole on Saturday, 18 August 2007 - 4:56 pm
What do you mean that the Dean is ‘living in his own fantasy’ and that the boat is fast sinking?? The fact is, the Dean has relocated himself and his family to Sabah in order to lead SPU as its foundation Dean. For those of us who have been observant enough, there is no doubt that the Dean has made many, many sacrifices to ensure that the vision of SPU can be achieved. I think I speak for the majority of us in SPU in that we are thankful for his effort and we have full confidence in his leadership. His sincerity in his quest to raise SPU as a centre of academic and research excellence is PLAIN OBVIOUS!!!!
Most of us, both local and expats share the same vision as the Dean and we are also making sacrifices to achieve our common goal in producing medical graduates of the highest calibre.
Perhaps you are the one caught up in your own fantasy…and that we are finding it extra difficult to row this boat because you are in it. Please do us a favour and jump boat!!
#29 by UMSgirl on Saturday, 18 August 2007 - 8:03 pm
this issue is terrible… nobody should judge UMS medical school because only the students know what has happened. I wonder who posted this topic which i believe will become a serious problem soon. As medical student here, i am sure that we are not that bad. I have seen so many medical officers graduated from well established universities yet do not perform well… we often question their skills… we learn all by ourselves. don’t ever blame the Burmese.. they are good…. better than some of the local lecturers…. some of them are really dedicated. Mentioning the dean’s name is so rude. I just hope if the dean find out who posted this topic, he will expel the student. Don’t just blame us, we scored 4.00 too in matriculation and STPM… so what is the difference?..There are so many students who did not do well in SPM, STPM and Matriculation opted to study abroad such as Rusia, my friends who failed matriculation too are studying in Rusia and Ukraine…. so are they better…. i don’t think so… In the end, it is all about human touch!!! what is the purpose of learning medicine if the doctor’s attitude is rude….. take for example, UNIMAS is new too but i can say that they are better than those graduated from well established universities… so DON’T talk nonsense!!! This topic is really really bad…..
#30 by UMSgirl on Sunday, 19 August 2007 - 5:25 pm
sheriff singh Says:
“By the way, what is the cut-off points for entry into the Medical Course in UMS? It is also possible the students themselves may not be of the quality required.”
this is totally untrue.. my batch, all of us scored 4.00 in our matriculation and STPM exam. It’s not the school who decides who goes in and who will not but the ministry of education. this is not a private university. at least all of us here did well in exam before. Even some private universities oversea recruit students who failed in exam and not even from science stream. Please don’t be rude.
#31 by ADAM YONG IBNI ABDULLAH on Monday, 20 August 2007 - 11:02 am
ANY DEBATES OF A GOOD SUBJECT IS BEST LEFT TO THE POINT OF CONTENTION.
WE HAVE READ BOTH THE PARTIES FOR AND AGAINST THE UNIVERSITY OF SABAH.
AND IN ANY DEBATES, IT STARTS WITH RESPECTING ALL HUMAN BEING AS ONE OF GOD’S CREATION. REGARDLESS OF NATIONALITITIES AND OR RACES. THIS WILL THAN BE A GOOD FOCAL POINT.
LIKE UMS GIRL NOTED: ‘ you dont have to be rude”
we will never know that she will make a better doctor than any other graduates of other varsity.
we will never know that one day, my life may hinge on her at the hospital.
show a little respect. a little bit of kindness goes a long long way.
thank you.
#32 by UMSgirl on Tuesday, 21 August 2007 - 7:54 pm
i am one of the students ( medical student-UMS ). I just wat to tell that what UMSgirl has said is bad, criticizing other university is really bad. It does not matter when people talk badly about UMS because there is nothing that we can do to change their thinking.As a senior, i was really sad to read this. All medical students are good, regardless of where they come from. I just hope that people will not simply judge UMS just by reading this article, anyway this is just a blog and we can never know the reality behind the topic. Anybody can post such topic. As far as i knew, the dean and the vice cancelor have put up effort to investigate this matter. Let me clarify something. There are 40+ lecturers- TRUE but these are official lecturers who are attached to UMS but this figure does not include the adjunct professors, clinicians, specialists of each department in QE, Likas etc who have been teaching the students. anyway they are the majority so after adding the total number of lecturers, the ratio of BURMESE to non- BURMESE is of course, less than 40+% as mentioned earlier. That is why, commenting a university without knowing the real situation is just as bad as commenting someone without knowing the person. ” tak kenal maka tak cinta” ( *_* ). I did my elective posting at teaching hospital in KL, and i did not feel that there are any difference between ‘here’ and ‘there’. in fact,just the same ( but UMS students have been scolded more than the students there even during 1st year at Queen because our teachers are great great consultants from QEH–> even the medical officers are scared of them ha ha. ). somehow we do feel discouraged, mentally and emotionally but hey look at the bright side, after this issue submitted, all students and supporters have become stronger, closer ( thank you so much !!! ). UKM, UM , USM etc are older universities, and these are good universities but they were once as young as UMS and faced the similar problem ( my aunty who is the consultant at one of the private hospital in Sabah said so ) but they become good–> takes time too. Sabah has problems , shortage of medical officers. Therefore, UMS is fully supported . if we were to tackle this problem, we should support the new universities. Moreover, UMS itself is based in Sabah. The older universities cannot accept so many students as they themselves are facing problem with lecturers.If UMS were to employ Japanese, Americans etc lecturers, will you regard them as University of America/Japan Sabah?? I guess people will be so happy since our mind was set to label Americans and Japanese are the great thinkers. That will become a pride. When UMS become University of Mynmar Sabah, people will look down on thatwhy?? Just like when the Africans took over the Whites. Think about the feeling of these poor Burmese lecturers. em, should we have this sort of thinking eg :
” made in Japan–> good )
” made in Korea–> not bad)
” made in China –> hem…no comment )
but made in Malaysia –> no way….