Education System in Russian Medical Universities: MBBS in Russia

As the NEET UG results for the year 2022 are out, most of the medical aspirants will now have to start working on how to secure admissions for MBBS in Russia and start with their admission procedure with the universities they have already shortlisted.

We have always discussed in details about the best top Russian medical universities, the admission procedure of these universities and so on. Now we will be discussing in detail about the education system in the Russian medical universities and they are as follows:

1. Teaching Method: This is the most important fact that all medical aspirants need to be aware of that the teaching method of every international country is different. Similarly, the teaching method of Indian medical universities will be different if compared to any foreign medical university or even Russian medical universities. So, there are many differences in the teaching method of the Russian medical universities. The most important difference is that in Indian Medical universities, aspirants are taught many subjects in a day. On the other hand, in Russian medical universities, there are different schedules for every subject. Hence, in Russia aspirants are first taught one subject at a time and only after completing one subject you will proceed with the other learning subject. For example, if suppose you have histology lectures scheduled for three weeks, then during this duration you will only learn histology. After this subject and lectures are completed, you can then proceed with another subject. So, this type of teaching method helps you to focus on one particular subject which is an advantage for the aspirants to grasp knowledge more efficiently focussing on every individual subject whereas on the other hand where the aspirants have to learn all the subjects at the same time, it becomes difficult for them to learn and remember every topic thoroughly. So, the teaching method of Russian medical universities is much more effective than Indian medical universities teaching methods.
2. Attendance: Another most important factor in any school or university is the attendance. In Indian medical universities, complete attendance is a must. But in Russian medical universities, it is acceptable in case if the aspirants have some kind of emergency to miss lectures once in a while. In Russia, if aspirants skip any lecture, then they have an advantage to cover the skipped lecture whereas in Indian medical universities if you happen to skip any lecture you can attend the same class again. So, in such cases, your attendance is also gone and the lectures are also missed. On the other hand, if Russian medical aspirants miss any lecture, they will have to clear it and only then that particular subjects will be cleared. Attendance is equally important in Russian medical universities and only if there is an emergency the aspirants can skip the lecture but will have to cover it after that. In Russia, if you are absent in any of the lecture, then it will be mentioned as ‘Atrabotka’ on your attendance sheet and then you will have to clear them all after taking permission from the dean of the university. The dean will permit you to attend the classes again if he finds your reasons to be valid and this permission is known as ‘Spavkra’ after which you can clear your missed lectures.
3. Marking or Credit System: The marking system in Russia is different as compared to the Indian medical universities which is on Credit basis. For example, if you have Anatomy classes for three weeks. During these classes, aspirants will have to appear for test every day which are conducted on regular basis. In case, if they are not conducting tests, then they will give you credits on the basis of your performance in the lectures. On the last day of the schedule lecture, when the classes are over, there will be a credit test which is a final test. On this test, aspirants will have to answer all the topics they have studied during the entire three weeks for a particular subject. Only after clearing this test, it will be considered that you have cleared the subject, otherwise it will not be considered as cleared. The Russian medical universities provide a credit book to all its aspirants and when aspirants clear a particular subject, the authorised teacher will enter the student’s credit in the book. Aspirants should keep in mind that during any academic year if they fail to acquire credit for any particular subject then that indicates that they have not completed that particular year in the university. So, aspirants will have to acquire credit for every subject so that they can proceed ahead in the next academic session.
4. Class Timings: Unlike India, the classes timing of Russian medical universities is quite different. In India, aspirants will have to attend their lectures in the morning and till the evening their lectures are over. But in Russia, if there are two classes in a day for example from 8 in the morning till 1 in the afternoon then that does not mean you will have to be in the class continuously, you will be given breaks in between the lectures. The next classes will be after your lunch which will be decided by the dean of the university in the similar manner. There are times when you have lectures only in the morning or in the afternoon which becomes very convenient for the aspirants to study other topics when after the lectures they are back to their hostels. Usually, when there are two classes a day, then it is divided between one important subject in the morning and one easy subject in the afternoon which generally refreshes the aspirant’s mind. So, the latter part acts as a mood lifter for all the aspirants who must have had a tough time focussing on the difficult subject in the morning. Hence the time is also managed well by the aspirants because of this kind of schedules.
5. Campus: In India, all the lectures are held in one university campus whereas this scenario is different in Russian medical universities. In Russian medical universities there are many different campuses for learning theory and practical knowledge which is an add on advantage for all the aspirants to acquire in depth knowledge of medical from various parts of the cities. Aspirants get a chance to explore the different part of the Russian cities while attending their lectures in different campuses or hospitals. Most of the Russian medical universities provide campuses within the university but there are some universities where the aspirants need to go outside the university for attending a particular lecture.
6. Internship: This is the most important factor for all the medical aspirants. In India, the medical aspirants have to pursue theoretical knowledge for 5 years and after that they have do a one-year internship program whereas in Russia, medical aspirants have to do internship after every academic year when they visit their home country for vacations. Aspirants can also stay in Russia and do this mandatory internship in the hospitals attached with the universities. The practical knowledge for some disorders such as malaria and typhoid are difficult to be conducted in Russia as these disorders are not witnessed there. Although these disorders are taught in the Russian medical universities, but the theoretical knowledge is not sufficient and practical knowledge can only be acquired by doing internship in Indian medical hospitals. So, the Indian medical aspirants during their vacations can acquire practical knowledge for any particular disorder which they are unable to acquire while staying in Russia. Moreover, with this, the Indian medical aspirants get a chance to acquire knowledge for both the countries simultaneously. This is the reason why Russian medical universities has made it mandatory for all its aspirants to do their internship every year when they are in Russia or visit their home country during vacations.

The motto of the education system of the Russian medical universities is to reduce the burden of the medical aspirants while they are pursuing a 6 years MBBS program in Russia as they are aware that the Indian medical aspirants have to pursue their medical studies according to both Russian and Indian medical education system.