Unfortunately, it's a discrete matter but, if you must know. I can only tell you that there is a certain group of sponsored students who are only match to unis in the UK, hence, filling up the space meant for other students.

Every uni has a certain local:international students ratio. Most people just look at the limit of international students numbers for a uni, many don't realise that there is such a ratio between local and international students and as well as, between international students. This is just to satisfy the local students. Well, of course, most unis want higher international student intake, since they pay a higher amount for fees. But (as a local)would you feel happy, if >80% of your class are foreigners.

For medicine, please point a uni where international students > 50%, never mind 80% (like what you wrote). We are not talking about other courses, so stick to medicine. As far as I know, the intake per year is about 7-10% of total intake, so at most' international 10%, local 90%.

Also, if what you are alluding about sponsored students is true, the IMU PMS program has no credibility, and no wonder there are cases of PMS students doing badly after transfer.

Mine was a one offer case BUT it was mostly down to my bad selection of universities, I'm afraid.

I had two interviews, with one successful and the other, a rejection.
For one university, I wasn't able to attend the interview due to the fact that they had change their selection procedure from not interviewing to an MMI in UK itself. At the point when I was applied, the information at which I knew of did not state about the interview but it was recently implemented AFTER the UCAS closing date.

The final university rejected me the earliest, which was about early December. Furthermore, my fellow peers from the same college who applied to the same university were also rejected around the same time. I did not manage to find anyone who went to the university directly. I could only speculate that it was due to the IMU credit transfer which limited the number of places available for direct entry. (Just a guess~)

( I know I shouldn't be lamenting about it but it's not an excuse to deny that it was my incapability which denied me more than one offer. It could be due to chance though but I can only guess)

it is a game of chance only if you are delusional about your own ability and strengths and ignorant about the respective selection policies.....

that much describe many msians used to just buying a place in ipts or russia/indon/egypt with any result.....

This post has been edited by limeuu: Feb 26 2014, 08:02 AM

It was an exaggeration to point out my point. What course or uni would even have >10‰ as you have pointed out. In medicine, a highly competitve course they even try to keep it as low as possible. Nevertheless such a thing exists and have a big impact on the number of international students admitted.

About the credibility, PMS pathway is a backdoor and much easier entrance to unis. Students who opt for it are guaranteed a place, they just need to scrape a minimal pass for their exams. Of course, bear in mind this shouldn't be generalised to all the students.

Then the "balancing" reason that you gave in your earlier post is not valid, and has NO impact since it's already known, and this has been the practice for many years. Medical schools in the UK have prepared for this. Whether or not they want to profit from international students from year 1 vis a via from year 3 onwards, a bit of common sense is all that's required to come to a decision.

This post has been edited by podrunner: Feb 26 2014, 10:50 AM

Common sense? Want to profit? This is business we're talking about. Do you know how many times more are international students paying compared to local students? Do you really think these unis are playing by the rules? Just a quick search on google will report numerous articles of unis bending the admission rules to allow more international students in.

Went they realized that "Oh no, we have admitted too much for the year, what should we do?" They will take up the quota for the following year. At least they have the brains to do that, look at the glut here. And all for what? To balance the student ratios.

Please show me an article/report where medical schools in the UK are bending their rules to allow more international students in. I would be most interested.

You're missing my point - if my quota for the year is say 20 (including PMS transfers) would I want to admit 20 first years and earn fees for 5 years OR take 10 first years (5 yr fees) and 10 PMS transfers (2.5 years fees). Simple common sense deduction.

As far as I know, at present, the transfer students are not taken into consideration when talking about the quota. Its in the range of about 10% and all this are in the list of unis as available from MABECS. And i dont think they can make use of the subsequent year quota. Maybe due to some exceptional circumstances, some flexibility can be accommodated.

Mind clarify this:

"They will reappear again in the PMS list, just not for a year(or maybe, two) to balance their local:international student ratio."

Seriously, you can't just google for yourself.
This isn't much of a choice for the PMS uni. There is an understanding between PMS uni and IMU such that the PMS uni will reserve a certain number of places for IMU students unless there are certain reason/s that they couldn't afford to.

PMS uni sometimes are taken off from the PMS list for certain batches. Most often the reason is no placing. The reason behind is up to your own imagination. Once they resolve their 'placing' problem, they#ll reappear in the list.



This post has been edited by Blue2u: Feb 26 2014, 04:00 PM

You're grasping at straws .

Yeah, I'm struggling to get you to see my point of view.

Its not likely that the UK unis will want to get involved with the Malaysian dilemma as regard the "sponsored students" unless the quality assurance is there as no one will want its reputation to be tarnished for an additional few bucks.

the reason for the imu-pms programme is because there is always extra capacity in clinical years....because there is always a drop out rate in the first 2 years.....this rate varies, but usually about 1-10% depending on uni and cohort...these cannot be replaced with new students obviously, due to the nature of the course....

hence imu's pms programme falls nicely into this situation, filling the clinicals years with ready made students!....

this does not factor in the international student quota initially....

it looks like they are now including the imu (and brunei) programme in this quota, hence the unis will now need to decide which is a better way of maximising income.....the logical move is to take them in from year 1, and only allocate places for imu if any international student drop out, as they cannot now use the local student quota to take in imu students....

while i said the programme was successful, the pms do face a problem with imu students...ie the standards are patchy.....in obvious reflection of their intake policy.....(ie based on money, not quality and taking in weaker students with money to 'give them a chance')....thus some pms impose strict criteria on who can match to them, eg some will NOT consider any student who has failed any eos exam....and while the majority successfully complete the programme, there is a significant failure and repeat rate as well....

if you read pagalavan's blog, some imu-pms graduates are lamenting the drop in standards in students matching to canada....

Wow,just read pagavalan's blog.. Russian warfare going on.

I suppose the above statement in bold is very clear and self-explanatory to most of us here, no?

Thanks for your enlightening points .....

I can imagine your fluctuating heart beat counts moments before you received the ONE AND ONLY offer ...... while

discussing about it with those who show concerns .....

Thanks for sharing .

Do accept the situation or fact that sometimes some of the people cannot see some of your points of view.

Don't worry about it and just move on .....

We are here to share experiences and opinions, not to seek converts.

the patchy standards of imu students pales in comparison with the range of students in russian med schools....

The level and intensity of denial is just unbelievable. The good ones will very likely do the USMLE, knowing what they now know of the Russian perception.