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QUESTIONS YOU NEED TO ASK BEFORE STARTING AT NUMED

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       This is often the time of year when prospective students are exploring their options when it comes to applying to go to medical school. In fact some may already have read marketing material from Newcastle University Medicine Malaysia (NUMed) online, or may have even attended a virtual open day. It is crucial to interrogate the information one is presented with, as otherwise there could be long term, expensive consequences. 1.      What is the fail rate for the MBBS programme at NUMed?      Universities rarely publicise details of how many students fail to qualify after the five year programme. The fail rate in final exams at NUMed has been in the 8%-16% range in the last few years. The fail rate in most UK, and in other Malaysian medical schools, public and private, is of the order of 3%-5% .   There are likely to be a number of explanations for this, such as entry criteria, but the more fundamental issue relates to whether it is ever possible (or even necessary) to deliv
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NUMed - An Inadequate Response to Student Concerns

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Some weeks ago, students at NUMed wrote collectively to the senior management team, asking some very relevant and pertinent questions. They asked about the numbers and quality of faculty staff, particularly why so many staff had left in the 2019-20 academic year. They also wanted to know why the failure rate at NUMed was so much higher than it was in the UK, and how this was going to be addressed. They also made clear their views about the quality of some of the more recent online lectures and learning resources. As one can imagine, the joint response from the CEO in Malaysia, and the Pro- Vice Chancellor in the UK was defensive, and not terribly informative. What follows is my critique of that response. I have doubts about the veracity of staffing numbers described . I was on the faculty from Aug 2018, until I left in March 2020, and I am struggling to think of more than one faculty member who started with me, and who was still there when I left. I think it would be worth looking at n
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FINAL MBBS EXAMS AT NUMED

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The examination results for the Final MBBS Exams at Newcastle University Medicine Malaysia (NUMed) have just been published. 12% of the cohort have failed, which is marginal improvement on the 16% failure rate last year . This compares with a fail rate of 3-4% in most UK medical schools, including Newcastle . A double digit fail rate of this order should raise eyebrows, especially in two consecutive years. The irony of course is that the vast majority of UK final year medical students were graduated in 2020 without sitting any final examinations, as a consequence of the pandemic, because they were needed for frontline services. Of the 14 students who failed, 12 will have little choice but to repeat the final year, at enormous personal cost, emotional and financial, to themselves and to their parents, and perhaps to the public purse , as some of these students will be on scholarships. The two students, who have already repeated the final year once, will now be leaving the universit
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