New Chapters of Life @Perdana University

Earlier on, I have mentioned that I might further study, perhaps Msc. Nutrition in UK. Due to the deferment of the scholarship approval and reconsideration of my future path, I decided to enrol in Perdana University which offers the graduate program of Medicine Degree to the science-stream's degree holders. Being a health science (Nutrition) student, I have realized that by becoming a doctor, I can do more to help others in the society. Rather than prevention alone that I've always been taught as a Nutrition student, I'm interested to study more on treatment or clinical sciences. So...I'm sure most of you don't know about Perdana University, so here's a brief introduction on it.

"Perdana University is a private university established under the Private Higher Educational Institutional Act 1996 (Act 555).  Perdana University was established in 2011 as a project under the Public-Private Partnership Unit in the Prime Minister’s Department (UKAS). Its establishment is in line with the Ministry of Higher Education’s (MOHE) National Higher Education Strategic Plan on the development of first-class human capital in an environment that results in individuals finding and fully achieving their personal potential. Perdana University will work towards providing world class education for all qualified students through efforts of international benchmarking and collaboration with professional bodies and industry. Perdana University’s vision, mission and objectives as stated below are aimed at contributing to MOHE’s efforts of establishing Malaysia as an international hub for education by attracting students from all over the world.

Perdana University offers two medical degree programmes. The first, Perdana University Graduate School of Medicine (PUGSOM) in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, offers a four-year graduate entry programme based on a JHUSOM curriculum. The second, PU-RCSI School of Medicine in collaboration with the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), offers a five-year programme based on a conventional curriculum. 

The Life Sciences Research Centre of Perdana University is affiliated with Johns Hopkins Research Centre. The centre will not only enable local students to acquire the necessary skills of research early in their career but place Malaysia in the global research community. The 600-bed Teaching Hospital of Perdana University is affiliated with Johns Hopkins Medicine International. It will be the first private teaching hospital in Malaysia and will include a full complement of ambulatory care facilities, diagnostic capabilities and ancillary support services.
Plans are also underway to establish a Centre of Excellence for diseases prevalent in this region such as heart diseases, cancer, cerebrovascular diseases, diabetes and tropical diseases among others." 

So why Perdana University? it's the first medical graduate school in Malaysia in collaboration with John Hopkins University School of Medicine. Initially, I found it not really promising since the school fees is extremely horrifying, it costs a million ringgit!!! JPA offers 50 scholarships each year but doesn't that means only JPA scholars will afford to study in PU? How will it be in the long run? My main concern is will it shut down after a few years? After meeting the admission officer from PU, he analysed and explained the situation to me that PU is the inspiration of Tun Mahathir Mohamed that he wishes to retain local talents by bringing in the international benchmarking and professionals. The fees is expensive because they have invited the lecturers from John Hopkins to teach in PU. Moreover, JPA has signed a contract with them to ensure that there're will be scholarships for the students in the long run. After hearing that, I still feel unsure about it and was struggling whether I should further in overseas or go to PU, but ended up I sent my application form, together with personal statement and three essays lols Then, I was called up for two interview sessions, first with three lecturers (more like sharing session with each of them) and the second time with two doctors from JPA (harsh session as they really gave me hard time lol). 

So that's it! I'm IN :) It's true that PU has been mauled by countless critics, but I have decided to put my faith in this new university that has just been established last year. This week is the orientation week, I'm so surprised that the orientation is totally different from UPM lols No cheers, no silly games, no funny ice-breaking, but there're leadership intersessions for us! Leadership intersessions sound boring but trust me, they're exciting! The talks were inspiring, mostly related to decision making, health care issues, and communication. The information given was based on real life stories, and the way the speaker (Dr. Sanjay from John Hopkins) conveyed the message was so new and fresh to me! Let's see one of the picture we have seen today, amazing optical illusion regarding to decision making. 

Which box is darker? A or B?

A and B are the same colour! Believe it? Lol. You can try to open it in Photoshop and take a pixcel sample using the eyedropper tool. Our eyes are deceived by the relativity of colours. When the gray box is surrounded by white boxes, it tends to look darker. That's all haha

We also played some games, the game I love the most is the board game (I don't know the exact name but it illustrated the departments in hospital and how are we going to arrange the incoming patients and how to deal with the issues like insufficient beds, on-shift staffs, paramedic turnaways, etc). 

Most importantly, the lecturers and staffs are so helpful and efficient! We have heuristic and two-ways communication rather than passive learning. The class is awesome too! There're 32 of us for the second batch of PUGSOM. We're from different backgrounds, some are from local universities (like me), some obtained their degrees in overseas such as UK, US and Australia, there's one international student from Washington DC, and one master student (he's actually my senior if not mistaken, what a coincidence). How did we break the ice? The answer is Rooftop Pizza Party! Dr. Nicole and Dr. Patrick invited us to the rooftop in Verve Suites, Mont Kiara for a party on the second day of orientation! Got the photos from my friend, she's a lousy photographer hahahaha she gonna kill me. Just managed to take a photo with few of the lecturers and some of my coursemates as others left early :x

Oh yeah back to the curriculum. PUGSOM (Perdana University Graduate School of Medicine) is a four-year medical degree that adopts the curriculum of Gene to Society by John Hopkins. Gene to Society is indisputably the only curriculum in Malaysia that starts the basic science and clinical science concurrently. That's means we need to go to the hospital in the first year for clinical studies rather than waiting until our third year as in local universities. The schedule is arranged differently as well to let us have more chances to apply and practise what we have learnt. PUGSOM always focus on producing a new breed of mature doctors, since  the quality of doctors especially housemen is deteriorating day by day, wrong diagnosis, lack of patient care, and inappropriate drugs prescription. So let's see whether we can make it in the near future! :)) Finger-crossed.

I can't guarantee that this is the best decision I have made, but I'm sure it's not the bad one. In fact I start to believe that it's the best one. lols Oh the only drawback is PU is located in Serdang as well, just a stone throw away from UPM. Basically I just can't get myself OUT OF Serdang, BORING! oh and I'm bombarded by American English every day haha not a big problem to me, thanks to American dramas. Life will be hectic soon as the class starts next week, we'll have few weeks schedule on anatomy. Wish me luck :)