KUALA LUMPUR, June 20 — The admission quota of medical students to local institutions of higher learning has been maintained, the Dewan Negara was told today.

Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin the admission quota of medical students allowed by the Ministry of Health (MOH) was 4,820 people per year but the actual number of graduates was lower, about 4,000 people per year.

"The ministry will continue to maintain the quota, because there are many applications to study medicine and the fees set for local universities are cheap, so we are actually democratising education.

"We allow many to apply for medicine, if we reduce (the intake) in the country then of course some will have to go abroad and the cost is very high,” he said when replying to a question from Prof Tan Sri Dr Mohamed Haniffa Abdullah.

Mohamed Khaled said 2,401 medical graduates were produced in 2020 while 3,132 in 2021 and 3,934 in 2022.

The estimated production of local medical graduates for the next three years is about 3,934 people per year, comprising 2,281 from public higher education institutions and 1,653 private higher education institutions. — Bernama