By Saiful Bahri Kamaruddin
Pix Saiful Bahri Kamaruddin

KUALA LUMPUR, 1 September 2015 – Some 220 students have been offered places for the first year at the Faculty of Medicine, The National University of Malaysia (UKM) for the 2015/2016 session.

Of the total 138 were offered places to do medicine, 40 for Nursing, 18 for Emergency Medicine, and 24 for Midwifery.

Registration for the new intake opened here today at the faculty with successful candidates arriving to sign in at the campus in Cheras.

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic and International Affairs) PROF Dr Riza Atiq Abdullah O K Rahmat and Dean of Faculty of Medicine and Director of Hospital Canselor Tuanku Muhriz (HCTM) of the UKM Medical Centre Prof. Dato’ Dr. Raymond Azman Ali were on hand to greet the new students and their accompanying families.

Dato’ Dr Raymond said the registration was divided into two phases; one in the morning for candidates from Johor, Perak, Kedah, Perlis, Pulau Pinang, Sabah and Sarawak, and in the afternoon for students from the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Selangor, Malacca and Negeri Sembilan.

After registration closed at 4.30 PM the freshmen were taken to their college of residences where they started the official orientation programme with physical exercises followed by dinner and a briefing.

Here is a breakdown of the new intake:

Disciplines	Male	Female
Medicine	45	93
Nursing	5	35
E-Med	16	2
Midwifery	–	24
Total	66	154

The Medical Faculty was established in 1972, with the first intake of 44 students for undergraduate medical training. The number of departments and its academic strength grew rapidly over a short period and soon the faculty was already admitting post graduate students especially in non clinical subjects.

In 1981 the first ever local medical specialist training programme in the country was started in the Department of Surgery and Department of Orthopedics, namely the Masters of Surgery (General Surgery) and Masters of Surgery (Orthopedics).