MOSCOW, June 25 (RIA Novosti), Anna Kurskaya - A medical degree is an asset anywhere in the world and while Russian doctors earn less than their Western counterparts, Russian medical schools provide high-quality education and are very popular among both Russian and foreign applicants.
For many decades, Russian medicine has been at the forefront of world science. Thanks to the outstanding physicians and researchers who have lived and worked in Russia over the years, the country is currently home to many good medical schools. According to experts, some of these institutions, particularly their physiological and neurological programs, differ markedly from what is offered is in the West.
Education for everyone
In recent years, Russian medical schools in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Astrakhan, Kazan and other cities have been attracting a large number of foreign applicants.
The influx can be explained by the nature of Russian medical education, which is oriented toward a deep understanding the body's processes, rather than individual symptoms or conditions, according to Larisa Popovich, Director of the Institute for Health Economics at the Higher School of Economics National Research University.
In addition, medical schools in Russia have reached a high level in terms of equipment and facilities, including advanced telecommunication and information systems, which allows for rapid progress in medical education, the expert pointed out.
"The I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University has been using the latest technologies, which makes it possible to provide quite competitive training. The Department of Fundamental Medicine at the Lomonosov Moscow State University, too, has been doing quite well. There are top-notch universities in some regional centers, such as Tomsk, Simferopol, St. Petersburg, and others," Popovich said.
According to Irina Abankina, Director of the Institute for Educational Studies at the Higher School of Economics National Research University, medical schools throughout Russia also offer students more opportunities to do research.
"Several Russian medical schools have been making strides and are becoming increasingly popular among foreign applicants. Universities have been adjusting curricula to meet their needs and have established departments for international student outreach. If a university has such a department and its own clinical system, people will see it as a potential place to earn their degree," she said.
The Russian medical education system has other, less obvious advantages, according to Popovich. For example, students from Israel and some Muslim countries can gain valuable experience in Russia by taking anatomical dissection courses, which is not always available in their countries.
And yet the problem facing many Russian universities is that their graduates do not always know how to use what they have been taught in practice. While this is more of a problem in other professions, such as engineering, Russian medical schools should offer more clinical experience to students, according to experts.
"If the clinical side of doctor training is improved, Russian medical schools will gain a significant competitive advantage over schools in other countries," says Popovich.
This is why it is so important for medical schools to have clinics of their own.
Language barrier
But clinical experience involves working with real patients, and this requires that international students have a good command of the Russian language. Irina Abankina believes that language instruction is a crucial component of the curriculum at any medical institution.
Under the national standard for Russian universities, international students must have "first-level" knowledge of Russian to be eligible for admission, which means they must know at least 2,300 Russian words and be able to navigate most situations in everyday life. As a rule, foreigners attain this level after a year of specialized language training.
But the standard for graduates of Russian medical schools is much higher. To receive a bachelor's or a master's degree, international students have to demonstrate second-level proficiency, which is defined as knowing at least 10,000 Russian words and being able to speak and write on day-to-day and work-related topics.
On the whole, Russian universities have proven themselves capable of teaching foreign students Russian. The best record in this regard belongs to People's Friendship University of Russia (PFUR), which has a medical school. According to the QS ranking of top universities, PFUR is the most international Russian institution, with 25,000 of its students hailing from 140 countries around the world.
The university has a one-year Russian language and general education department for foreigners. After completing the program, students can transfer either to PFUR's medical school or to another Russian university.
International accreditation
To work in foreign countries, doctors must have a diploma that is recognized abroad or pass a special licensing exam. Russian doctors working abroad generally take the latter path to find employment in developed countries. But it is not always easy to pass the licensing exam because of the stringent requirements on doctors. Vladimir Briller, Executive Director of Strategic Planning and Institutional Research at Pratt Institute in New York, says that even graduates of local medical schools have to work hard to prove their worth.
"In the US, we have a system of double quality control for doctors. In addition to graduating, doctors must take an exhaustive exam on their specialty. The exam contains several thousand questions and is divided into several stages. On top of that young doctors must go through very intensive, years-long internships during which they basically live at the hospital," Briller explained.
Medical degrees from some countries, such as India, are recognized by the United States. But Indian medical schools have done a lot of work and invited US specialists to improve the quality of doctor training in the country. Apart from India, the generally recognized Asian leaders in medical education are the National University of Singapore and the University of Malaya.
Other schools have made efforts to have their medical degrees recognized by the United States and Canada, such as St. George's University in Grenada and Ross University in the Dominican Republic.
But Vladimir Briller believes that foreign recognition of Russian diplomas is less important than improving the quality of training by boosting the role of research at Russian med schools, even though this is a costly and slow process.
"If Russian medical schools want to train more foreigners, they should obtain international accreditation or at least invite international specialists to assess the quality of the training they provide. If the high quality of the training can be proved, Russian schools will be able to attract students from all over the world," he said.
