Newcastle University Medicine Malaysia Dr Steve Jones & Professor Philip Bradly

Dr Steve Jones, Dean of Clinical Affairs and Professor Philip Bradly, Dean of Academic Affairs, presented a talk on Newcastle University Medicine Malaysia.

The medical course was first founded in Newcastle University, United Kingdom in 1835. The current recruitment of students in the UK stands at 350. NUMed Malaysia targets 180 students per year; with 100 first year and 20 third year students by 2012.

A student satisfaction survey in 2010 rated NU as 1st overall in Great Britain.

NU Medicine Malaysia provides a medical degree that is recognized by GMC and MMC.

The motto of NUMed Malaysia is “Excellence with a Purpose.” The university is established in the vicinity of Edu-city at Nusajaya, Johor and is here at the invitation of the Ministry of Health, Malaysia.

The university hopes to increase the number of medical practitioners in Malaysia and to improve the quality of medical practice in the public health system of the country and NUMed Malaysia aims to achieve both in the most cost effective manner.

The teachers are lead by senior staff from UK, experienced clinicians and experienced academic staff who go through a thorough induction and staff development program.

The university prides itself with a state of the art campus. The NUMed course adopts a case led approach, with early patient contact and early clinical skills. The university adopts a mixed approach in teaching, strong in social medicine, communication and professional skills. The university trains its students to listen to the patients, as ultimately ( as in 90% of the cases), it is the patients who tell the doctors the diagnosis. The physical examinations and investigations that are carried out later, merely confirm the diagnosis.

NUMed believes that improved communication skills with doctors will improve patient satisfaction, job satisfaction for the doctors, is therapeutic in itself, resulting in fewer unpleasant and expensive investigations and doctors being less likely to be sued.

( email: Steve.jones@newcastle.edu.my )