This blog post comes from our database keeper: Wan Aasim Wan Adnan

What is this data about?

This data relates to MARA and JPA scholars sent to study MEDICINE in Egypt in the years 1970 to 1978.

Why is the data only for the cohort of 1970 to 1978?

This period coincides with the time when there was a change in government policy and there was a realisation that we needed to increase the number of medically qualified Malays in our country. This was the mandate of YAM Raja Dato Fuziah bt Raja Tun Uda ( for MARA ) and Dato’ Siti Mazenah bt Saad ( for JPA ). More of that in Dato Siti Mazenah’s blog post ( coming really soon….)

Why does this data extend to 1992?

The data extends to 1992, as this is the year that the final person from this particular cohort graduated and obtained full registration.

Where did this data come from?

Ideally the data should come from official sources of JPA and MARA but the data is more than half a century old and is either lost or inaccessible to me, at this particular time. If anyone has this data please let me know. As it stands, the data ( list of names and university attended ) comes from the next best thing:  the collective memories of our brothers and sisters who studied in Egypt. Thank you for the data.

Why does the data focus only on  Medical students?

I traced and verified the above data against the list of names of registered doctors available in the Medical Information and Technical System ( MeRITS ) as this was the only verified and most reliable list available to me at this time. Please note that I do not have data on when the people involved graduated. However I do have data on when they obtained full registration with MeRITS. I have used that data instead. 

I know that we also have Dental and Pharmacy students in Egypt at that time. I have not left out my fellow brothers and sisters on purpose. It is solely because I currently have no verifiable data list to countercheck with my list of names. If anyone of my Dental and Pharmacy brothers and sisters can help, let me know.  

What do we know so far?

Based on our collective memories, I compiled a list of people who were sent to study in Egypt from 1970 to 1978. The first students to graduate and obtain full registration according to MeRITS were Mohamed Hashim b Hassan and Abdul Rahman bin Muda in 1975 followed by Ahmad Badrus b Othman in 1976 while Allahyarham Azmi bin Ahmad and Abdul Aziz b Ahmad graduated in 1977. The 10 people who graduated in 1978, were the first to be sent formally as a group by MARA while the 17 who graduated in 1979  were both MARA and JPA scholars. Refer to the graph for data on the other batches. The last person from this cohort graduated and obtained full registration according to MeRITS in 1992.

Based  on full registration data from MeRITS, from a total of 204 students sent to study medicine in Egypt, 191 graduated and obtained full registration. There is a discrepancy of 13 who were:   (A) registered in other countries (2 students ),  (B) Allahyarham Adam Lana who passed away in Malaysia while still a student (1 student ) and some who decided to pursue other interests (10 students ).

Was the decision to send this cohort to Egypt a successful one?

This will be the subject of my next blog post. ( on the basis of data provided by our collective memories……)