The main difference is who are eligible for the scholarship...jpa scholarships are in recent years open to all, with an obvious but unstated quota set for bumi and non bumi....

Mara on the other hand, is purely for bumi only....and if jpa has any scholarship restricted to only bumis, they use the name 'mara', to avoid confusion and complains.... Hence the so called jpa-mara scholarship....

Since this is not well understood, let me make it clear then...

There is NO more scholarships for non bumi to do medicine overseas....

There is still such scholarships for bumis....and three agencies are still doing that....jpa-mara, Mara itself, and state bodies....

Its the same for loans. JPA does not give out any loans now and Mara does it. It has affected many and with the ringgit depreciation, the GST and the hike in toll rates......

for a very good rundown of all jpa related "open' scholarships, please read this detailed blog....

http://daniellimjj.blogspot.my/2015/04/gui...cholarship.html

bumis live in a different universe, and opportunities open to them are different...in addition to what is available to everybody as described in the link....non bumis generally don't have access to information on the huge education opportunities available only to bumis....

Got my offer from IMU! Bottom line before leaving for partner school is RM263k...Something tells me that 2 years pre-clinical in the UK is also around the same price...

Ouch.
My fees for pre clinicals were 15k+ each year. So about 200-210k myr in total.

It's 18k+ a year for most unis now...but even at today's ridiculous exchange rate it's still RM20k cheaper than IMU, notwithstanding the other fees and flight tickets and living cost

I would just go direct entry if offered....the other headache you will face is the uncertainty of matching....and possibility of match to Ireland or non smc recognized uni....or even oz....

This post has been edited by limeuu: Oct 20 2015, 07:59 AM

I was told that if the student is unhappy about the matching, a semester can be deferred and rematched later on with higher priority or something like that.

And then of course, there's the very-likely situation of not getting the offer from a UK uni

So it's up to you to weigh up the pros and cons and decide what you want.
If you need any advice or anything, just give a shoutout.

If its Glasgow, for 2 years its about 60k pounds for fees and it comes close to RM400k. Queens will be cheaper for clinical.

Holy smokes that's 30k a year! Almost equivalent to clinical years!

If you choose to match there, by that time it will be 35k pounds for fees per year. Hopefully, the ringgit will be much stronger.

Many unis now don't differentiate between pre clinical and clinical years....so you pay the same....

But those that charge pre clinical years with the lower fees in tandem with other non clinical courses, will find it cheaper direct entry than going through IMU....

As limeuu said, some unis charge the same amount of fees each year.
Imo, Scottish and London unis + Oxbridge tend to be exorbitant in terms of their fees in relation to other unis for pre clinicals.

I pretty much disagree with this statement.

As an English graduate working in Scotland, I would say NHS Scotland is fundamentally distinct from NHS England. Every job has its pros and cons, and you yourself is the decisive factor of how you get on with your foundation years.

Sorry but rumours probably doesn't have a ground to stand on here so please _ and thanks.

This post has been edited by Yeyechan: Oct 25 2015, 05:22 AM

Boy ya sure took your time to get a reply going

I think jckc is somewhat joking....

But Scotland and Wales are generally thought to be ulu places, and not popular....

Just think about being posted to Sabah and Sarawak, and you get the general idea why .....and you get the same reaction here too....

Sorry if my post offended you in any way.

As I just said, it's just a rumour and don't take it too seriously. It's just generally something I heard from people and found it quite amusing.
However, I would have to say that more of my fellow peers are now considering Scotland more due to the new junior contract and I can't really blame them for doing so.

Anyways, good day to you and I hope you're enjoying working in Scotland.

Does anyone know how the matching to partner schools will be done? Would there be any weightage placed on a student's Pre-University results?

no...except perhaps some which may impose eligibility rules...eg st georges used to only want to consider students with their minimum a levels eligibility of 3a....not sure if they still do...

the matching process i believe is explained in their website?...