PUTRAJAYA: Too many bright students are choosing a career in medicine, but the Government wants them to consider other fields, too.
Higher Education Minister Datuk Dr Shafie Salleh said these students, some of whom had cumulative grade point average (CGPA) scores of 4.0, should think of becoming scientists or researchers.
"We will be talking to the Public Services Department on how we can select certain candidates applying for scholarships and ask them to consider careers in science instead of medicine," he told reporters here.
"Many of these students only want to be doctors, not scientists, while it is the latter that the country lacks and is in need of, as we become more developed."
"Probably PSD can offer them some incentives if they choose careers in science."
He had earlier witnessed the signing yesterday of a memorandum of understanding between Kelah World (M) Sdn Bhd, Bung Hatta University in Indonesia, Kolej Universiti Sains dan Teknologi Malaysia and Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia on research into kelah fish.
Dr Shafie said the PSD could also carry out interviews to determine and select
students with the right disposition to become scientists and researchers.
"Maybe during the PSD interviews, we will try to convince them to venture into scientific research. The department may even administer personality and psychology tests for this purpose," he said.
Last year, some 128 students who scored maximum points in their STPM examination and listed medicine as their first choice of study were rejected by local universities for lack place. At the last minute, they were accepted.
Earlier this year, some brilliant SPM students also complained after they were turned down for PSD scholarships to pursue medicine overseas.
Currently, Dr Shafie said, the ministry had plans to expand the programme for Malaysians to pursue their PhD programmes at the Imperial College in London in a tie-up with five local universities.
Dr Shafie said the ministry intended to ask for more funds under the Ninth Malaysian Plan to be put aside for research in universities.
"So far, all our 17 universities are teaching varsities," he said.
"We plan to convert five of these into research universities. It’s something we had been planning for a long time."
Let's just hope this issue will be settled once and for all. It's the people's mindset. It's about time someone changed it. Seriously, there's a lot more good stuff out there other than Medicine. Keep in mind that I'm not against doctors. I'm only against people who think that if you're not doing medicine, you're dumb.
Like Dr. Torla said, we, the scientists are the brains behind the products doctors use. We're the creators. They're just the end-users. And I'm definitely confident to say that all of us are indeed proud to be biotechnologists-to-be. =D
Article taken from here.
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