Prof Raja Amin, associated with UiTM, disclosed that the university is prepared to temporarily open its cardiothoracic surgery program to non-Bumi parallel pathway trainees and graduates to address the issue of their qualifications not being recognized. He urged them to apply to initiate the process for Senate approval.
UiTM, in collaboration with the National Heart Institute (IJN), has agreed to the temporary opening of its cardiothoracic surgery postgraduate program to non-Bumiputera parallel pathway trainees and graduates. This decision came after discussions with UiTM's vice-chancellor and board chairman. They agreed to open the program to non-Bumiputera or non-Malays for a limited duration until a similar program is established at Universiti Malaya (UM).
The proposal to open the UiTM-IJN cardiothoracic surgery postgraduate program to candidates of all races was made in response to requests from the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) for a solution. This request stemmed from a one-year delay faced by the initial two cohorts of UiTM-IJN trainees due to most MOH centers refusing to accept them for cardiac surgery postings.
UiTM has decided to accommodate all 30 cardiothoracic surgery parallel pathway trainees and graduates, regardless of ethnicity, mapping them into the national program according to their respective stages of training. This move aims to integrate them into the national program until Universiti Malaya becomes ready to accept them.
UiTM-IJN currently hosts Malaysia's sole local university cardiothoracic surgery postgraduate program, while the parallel pathway program run by the MOH with a foreign royal college remains unrecognized by the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC). Concerns against the parallel pathway program have been raised, citing issues of British colonialism in arguing against its recognition.
