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Sunday April 13, 2008
Grads prefer to stay on overseas
PUTRAJAYA: More and more medical students sent abroad to study on government scholarships, many costing more than a million ringgit each, are breaking their 10-year bond by refusing to return and serve in public hospitals.
“This is a sore point with us. In 2006, 21 medical students in Britain did not return. Last year, the number was 63. For those studying in Ireland, three students did not come back in 2006 while last year, 27 did not return,” said Human Capital Development division director Datin Madinah Mohamad.
She said these students cost the Government up to RM1.1mil each in funding for the five-year course.
“The number has been steadily increasing each year since 2003. The excuse these undergraduates often give is that they want to do their two-year housemanship over there and continue with sub-specialisation courses.
“But when they do so, they may then get employed and become eligible for registration in Britain. With the pay they are getting there, it’s highly unlikely they will come back and serve here,” she said in an interview here yesterday.
Since 2003, 145 students from Britain and 85 from Ireland have not come back. However, only three from Russia, two from Jordan and one from Japan failed to return.
Another reason many students chose to stay back could have been due to PSD’s perceived lenient treatment of such students in the past and a paltry penalty of RM160,000 each before 2003, she said.
“It encouraged undergraduates, who have seen many of their seniors being let off, to follow suit,” she said.
Although the department had officers in Britain and Ireland to track down errant medical students, some in the last year of studies ignored notices and others did not bother to show up when called for interviews.
She said tougher measures were needed to make them come back and serve or pay their bond.
The department was now seriously considering suggestions to make errant students repay twice or thrice the sum of their scholarships as punishment.
“We need to study this recommendation,” she said, adding the department had also handed 30 such cases since 1989 to the Attorney-General’s Chambers for legal action and had even declared one former student bankrupt.
But legal action was slow and guarantors would be taken to court only as the last resort, she said.
Since PSD’s Overseas Scholarship Programme started in 2000, RM2.15bil in scholarships had been given to 10,485 students up to the end of last year.
Even the news was focusing mainly on Medical students who refuse to return, but it somehow generally reflects Malaysian students who are studying abroad. Not to be denied, of course the amount of salary paid there is much higher compared to our salary in here. It must be one of the main reason they refuse to return. Consequently, some voices might suggest, then Malaysian government should counter-back by increasing the salary, as well as the benefits given to them. But, will it be the best solution?
In my personal view, since the government has spent around RM1 million for each (medical) students (as reported in the news) for the whole period of study, hence we at least should come back and serve the Malaysians for a period of time, part of the feeling and responsibility as one of Malaysians. There's no harm of contributing back to the nations. Yeah, people tend to forget to say at least "Thank you" after they get what they have asked for. For Muslims, recognizing and appreciating others' contribution is also part of being grateful to Allah. Whenever we dare to leave something (which we think good for us, but not in the right way) to Allah, then Allah will surely replace it with something better in the future. I pray that I shall always be one of those grateful people, amin..
Wassalam.
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