No one is sure what kind of magic has been pulled, but it seemed the big named US medical school, the John Hopkins University has agreed to come to Malaysia and set up an operation here. Read how delighted our dear deputy DG of Higher Education Ministry is.

The new school, which will combine investments from both Malaysia and US capital ventures, will provide a four-year medical program and expects to admit some 100 students every year. No tentative date of operating commencement is given.

Malaysia’s John Hopkins University plans to start its operation somewhere in Serdang, nearby the Universiti Putra Malaysia, UPM.

Currently, the closest John Hopkins facilities are in the neighboring country, Singapore, which houses 30-bed licensed medical oncology and serves the Singaporeans and foreign patients primarily from the Middle East and Southeast Asia. This new Malaysian facility, is understood to be a multiple times bigger than Singapore, accommodating up to 600 beds.

Back in US, the John Hopkins University is more commonly referred as John Hopkins, Hopkins or simply JHU. Apart from its main campuses in Maryland and Washington in US, it also has international presence in a number of countries including Italy, China and Singapore.

Also, back there, the John Hopkins is a highly funded institution, and often receive more federal research grants compared to other universities across America, due to its extremely high level of research activity. Even the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which have thrown more than $100 million in funds since a decade ago considers the university an important research facility.

Majority of the graduating students would undergo independent research during their 4 years of learning, working with top researchers in their field of expertise. Because of the intensive degree of research, John Hopkins University becomes one of the most cited institutions (note that citations are always a major criteria major university rankings) in the world.

To date, more than 30 Nobel prize winners are in some way affiliated with the John Hopkins University.

The John Hopkins University was ranked 18th in the World Top 50 University Ranking 2010 published by the Academic Ranking of the World Universities (ARWU), while the US News and World Report ranked it at 13thin the world. America’s National Science Foundation, on the other hand, regards the university as the country’s no. 1 institution in terms of research and development spending for the science, medical and engineering fields.