KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 4 — Universiti Malaya’s (UM) Faculty of Medicine aims to produce up to 200 medical graduates annually, doubling its 1962 target when the faculty was established in Kuala Lumpur.
Dean Prof Dr Yang Faridah Abdul Aziz said that despite waning interest in the field of medicine, UM’s medical faculty remains a top choice for aspiring doctors.
“Being a premier university, I know a lot has been said about medicine and the declining interest in medical studies, but at the Faculty of Medicine, because we continue to push forward the vision and mission of nurturing lives and empowering communities through high-quality health care, scholarship, education and research, we still remain, and I’m very grateful for that, we still remain the choice for the next generation of doctors,” Dr Yang Faridah told BFM’s Health and Living last August 29.
“We no longer produce just 100 [medical graduates]. We now typically produce around 150 to 160. We hope to produce up to 200 medical doctors annually in Malaysia and we hope that these doctors continue to fly the flag of Universiti Malaya high.
“We are making sure that they remain competitive, that they remain future-ready, and of course, they remain competent.”
UM’s Faculty of Medicine – originally founded in 1905 as the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States Government Medical School in Singapore – began with just 17 students. Over the past 119 years, it has evolved significantly.
The modern-day Faculty of Medicine at Universiti Malaya in Kuala Lumpur was established in September 1962 with the goal of producing 100 medical doctors annually in Malaya.
Sixty-two years later, amid competition from other medical schools and international private universities, UM’s Faculty of Medicine stays competitive by addressing emerging global health threats, while maintaining a strong focus on core medical principles such as preventive versus curative care and the study of communicable and non-communicable diseases.
“I think the strong point of UM’s Faculty of Medicine is our established research culture. While global universities also emphasise research, the foothold we have in Malaysia is strong, deep, and well-rooted,” said Dr Yang Faridah, a consultant radiologist.
The faculty is also integrating humanities into its curriculum, including ethics and narrative medicine, to complement its research-driven approach and sustain its prominence as a top medical school in Malaysia.
UM’s Faculty of Medicine is renowned for producing influential figures in the medical field. Notable current examples include Prof Dr Woo Yin Ling, co-founder of the Rose Foundation and innovator in cervical cancer screening; Prof Dr Ng Kwan Hoong, a top 50 medical physicist globally; and Prof D. Hany Ariffin, involved in the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global Initiative for childhood cancer.
Historically, the faculty has also produced prominent figures such as Prof Dr Lam Sai Kit, who led the team that discovered the Nipah virus and contained a severe encephalitis outbreak in Malaysia in 1999, and Prof Dr Adeeba Kamarulzaman, the first Asian president of the International AIDS Society (IAS) and Malaysia’s first commissioner of the Global Commission on Drug Policy.
Additionally, former two-time prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad is an alumnus of Universiti Malaya, graduating from the University of Malaya Medical School in Singapore in 1953. The earlier iteration of the faculty, the King Edward VII College of Medicine, ceased to exist in 1949.
“There are many, many alumni of the University of Malaya medical school. I think if I were to go to every department, if I were to go to every batch, I’m going to find a trailblazer,” Dr Yang Faridah said.
Editor’s note: The second-last paragraph of the story was updated to correct an error about Dr Mahathir having graduated from the King Edward VII College of Medicine; he had graduated from the medical school when it was known as the University of Malaya Medical School in Singapore.
