Study Medicine in Belarus

Recently more and more foreingers come to study medicine in Belarus and there are reasons for this.

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The success of the contemporary medicine is determined by numerous achievements of fundamental applied sciences, biology, recent engineering developments. However all these impactful outcomes wouldn’t make any sense without people who put theoretical innovations into practical medicine.

 Since the rise of civilization medicine has had its reputation of the noblest of professions. Up to now it remains the ideal path for intelligent, talented, kind and sympathizing people to follow.

Therefore, preparation of a competent doctor possessing deep scientific knowledge, skilled in diagnosis and medical technologies, is one of the main issues of today’s higher medical education.

It’s already become a common knowledge that studying abroad can be a richly rewarding experience, especially if you take advantage of a career-focused program tailored to your own professional interests Nothing will be quite the same after you have studied abroad. Your perspectives will be global, your attitudes will be international. You’ll boost your character and become more independent. As stated in an article on https://www.dentistsperth.net.au/, it will also make your resume more attractive to future employers and your language proficiency will be advanced… the list of advantages can go on and on!

If you are willing to do your degree in medicine abroad, you should definitely consider Belarus as an educational point.

The higher medical institutions in The Republic of Belarus are recognized worldwide and correspond to the status of proficient training for future doctors. Belarus has a long history and profound traditions in the sphere of medicine. Moreover its huge strive for progress as well as significant intellectual potential of the working staff give Belarus a merited place in medical science and education of the 21s t century.

Belarusian system of higher education is well structured and due to its permanent advancement can be congruent with the western countries in the terms of efficiency and recognition. According to the standard of literacy among adult population and young people as well as to the number of students of the higher educational institutions Belarus is up to standard of many developed countries of Europe and America.

Training of health professionals is based on the up-to-date education technologies of higher and medical secondary education in combination with high-tech methods of practical medicine that enables them to be competitive and flexible in the world labour market.

The above mentioned reasons should be accountable for the fact that annually over 2,000 international students choose to study medicine in Belarus.

Due to the observed demand medical education is now available in Russian and English languages. Thus foreign students are provided with knowledge and professional skills equal to those that Belarusian students receive.

 

Medical education in Belarus

All in all medical education in Belarus can be obtained in two possible options

 

1. Medical and pharmaceutical Secondary Education  which is provided at 14 state colleges throughout the whole republic. Young people from all regions of Belarus, CIS countries, “near and far-abroad” countries study at medical secondary educational institutions. Studies are arranged according to the following specialities: general medicine, nursing, medical diagnostics, medical prophylaxis, medical rehabilitation, medical massage, stomatology, prosthetic dentistry, pharmacy.
2. Higher Medical Education is provided by 4 Medical Universities of the Republic of Belarus:

• Belarusian State Medical University
• Vitebsk State Medical University
• Grodno State Medical University
• Gomel State Medical University

The duration of the study course is 6 years. Within the first three years students study fundamental sciences such as anatomy, histology, biology, chemistry, physics, Latin and other foreign languages, philosophy. Studies for the 4-6-year students are conducted at hospitals and polyclinics. They master internal and surgical diseases, obstetrics and gynecology, infectious diseases, oncology, neurology, pediatrics and many other subjects. In summer students have their practical training: nursing – after the 3rd course, outpatient practice – after the 4th course, and inpatient practice – after the 5th course.

 

Belarusian State Medical University

Belarusian State Medical University is a leading, oldest and biggest higher educational establishment in Republic of Belarus medical education provider in the Republic of Belarus. The University has a strong international reputation across a wide range of disciplines. There are over 6400 registered fulltime Belarusian and international students, following diploma programmes, post-graduate students and clinical residents. The teaching staff of BSMU contains 888 highly qualified lecturers, the majority of them – doctors. Alongside with teaching students they carry out great scientific-research and therapeutic-consultative work at all big medical establishments of Minsk. The National Health Service Ministry regulates and continually assesses the teaching and learning styles of the University. The academic staff regularly participates in international conferences and symposia. Practical courses are taught at the best city hospitals and out-patient clinics which enables us to apply the most advanced teaching methods.

 

Vitebsk State Medical University

Vitebsk State Medical University is rated  high in the world-rating systems ,its degrees are recognized by world health organization(WHO), educational commission for foreign medical graduates (ECFMG,Philadelphia,US), Lithuanian Center for Quality  Assessment in Higher Education (Lithuania), Ministry Of Education and Higher Learning(Republic Of Lebanon), Federation Credentials,Verification Service(FCVS,Dallas,US),Medical council Of India,Sri Lanka,Ireland etc.

Educational process is organized at 58 departments, where 60 doctors and 181 candidates of sciences, including 39 professors and 145 associates’ professors, work.

The educational departments are equipped with modern automatic apparatus for training, sets of plastic models and phantoms, complex medical-diagnostic equipments. To improve the quality of teaching educative-industrial pharmacy, dental clinic and control-analytic laboratory were created where students are able to put the accepted knowledge into practice.

The scientific activity of VSMU is carried out in the following perspective scientific directions: field and extreme medicine, surgical diseases, prophylaxis of alcoholism, drug addiction and psychosomatic diseases, internal diseases; organization management and economy of health care system.

Vitebsk State Medical Institute was the first in Belarus to receive the right of training medical staff for foreign countries. With in 25 years of the Overseas Students Training Faculty existence 1250 doctors and pharmacist have been prepared and now they are working successfully in 110 countries of the world.

 

Grodno State Medical University

Grodno State Medical University is one of the leading medical universities in the Republic of Belarus.

Diplomas of our University are recognized by the World Health Organization, Educational commission for foreign medical graduates, by the medical councils of India, Lithuania, the USA. The graduates of the university successfully confirm their diplomas in Great Britain, Australia, Germany, India, Pakistan, Poland, Syria, the USA and in many other countries.

International students have been studying at the university since 1995. Since 2003 university medical training in English has been provided during the whole period of studying. At present 531 international students from 30 countries of the world study at the university.

The university works in collaboration with educational and research centres of Poland, Germany, Russia and other countries.

Students of Grodno State Medical University have opportunities to do practical training abroad.

 

Gomel State Medical University

The Gomel state medical university has gained the reputation of a center of supreme medical education within Belarus and beyond its borders.

Today, Gomel State Medical University has 600 highly-qualified professors and assistant professors;
34 departments, 5 profile research laboratories and a central research laboratory. Practical studies are held at 18 large clinics equipped in modern way.

More than 5000 (including more than 1300 international) students taught at 5 faculties of the University.

For the years of its existence, the University has prepared more than 2000 doctors.

Students from Poland, Turkey, Russia, China, Vietnam, Lebanon, Iran, South America, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Newly Independent States and Western Europe come to study medicine in Vitebsk.

The university constantly supports and develops contacts with medical high schools of near and far abroad. International cooperations are established with Universities of pediatrics Ygilonsk of university (Krakow, Poland), a scientific organization of young scientists and students of Gdansk university (Poland), clinic of a children’s diabetes of Florence (Italy), the military-rehabilitation center of Ragama (Sri Lanka), medical faculty of university of Aberdeen (Scotland), three universities in USA.  Kind relations maintained with many medical high schools and scientific research institute of Russia.

In collaboration with a group of Japanese universities joint researches in the field of diseases induced by radiation and pathologies and the most effective ways of their treatment are carried out. The exchange of students and teachers became good tradition in relations between the Gomel State
Medical University and universities of Japan.

 

Faculties and specializations

Regardless of the university chosen 5 major faculties are found within any of them:

• The Faculty of General Medicine
• The Faculty of Preventive Medicine
• The Faculty of Pediatrics
• The Faculty of Dentistry
• Medical Faculty for International Students

 

The main speciality of graduates from the Faculty of General Medicine is treatment and prevention.

Graduates from the Faculty of Pediatrics get speciality in pediatrics as well as a specialization in internship specialities approved by the Order of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Belarus.

Graduates from the Faculty of Stomatology take a diploma of a general practitioner-dentist, and after a specific specialization they can work as dentists, orthopedists, surgeons and pediatric dentists.

The main specialists of the Faculty of Preventive Medicine are hygienists and epidemiologists. They can also work as a virologist, bacteriologist, physician-laboratory assistant, occupational pathologist, toxicologist, radiologist, dietitian, public health provider.

In Belarusian State Medical University there’s an additional Faculty of Military Medicine where potential military doctors are trained.

The Faculty of Pharmacy functions at Vitebsk State Medical University. In a two-year-time the first pharmacists will be graduated from Minsk State Medical University where the Faculty of Pharmacy and Med Applications was organized only in 2011 due to the shortage of personnel.

Post-graduate training, clinical residency and transfer are possible at the universities as well. The procedure of admission and the required documents will be slightly different though.

 

The procedure of foreign students’ admission

The admission exam for foreign students is held in a form of an interview. Foreign citizens applying for the 1st year are interviewed in English/Russian, Biology and Chemistry. In case the training is provided in English, international students are interviewed in the above mentioned subjects in the English language.

The interview includes 5 questions in each subject, which are assessed in a 10-grade scale from 0 to 10. To be admitted to the next entrance test a student needs to get at least a 3.

In Vitebsk State Medical University the requirements are slightly stricter. The results of the preliminary testing in biology, chemistry and English should be no less than 50% in each subject.

Sometimes foreign students take the entrance exams in the Russian language. Usually these are the students who have studied at first at the Preparatory Departments of the Faculties for Foreign Students. Here they study the necessary subjects to enter the University (Russian, Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics and Physics). As a rule each university offers such an option.

Citizens of the CIS have the right to enter the university:

• according to the results of centralized testing (on equal rights with citizens of the Republic of Belarus: by means of the state budget or on a fee-paying basis)
• on terms required for foreign citizens – according to the interview results, which show the level of the language (the language of training) proficiency which is enough for learning the academiс program.

 

Documents for acceptance in Belarusian medical schools

The foreign citizens intending to study medicine in Belarus have to get the Invitation Letter which is the ground for obtaining the Student Visa in the Belarusian Embassy abroad. In case there’s no Belarusian embassy in their country they can obtain the visa at Minsk National Airport in presence of a university’s representative.

To get the invitation letter the following documents need to be submitted to the chosen university:

1) The Copy of General Certificate of Secondary Education including the list of the subjects studied and the marks. High marks in Biology, Chemistry and Physics are obligatory.

2) The Notarized Translation of General Certificate of Secondary Education including the list of the subjects and the marks into the Russian or Belarusian language.

3) The Copy of Passport.

4) The Notarized Translation of the Passport into the Russian or Belarusian language.

 

Tuition fees and accommodation

Tuition fee for foreign students who study medicine in Belarus makes up $4,100 a year. It is usually paid in 2 equal installments in the amount of 2,050 per semester.

Accommodation is not included into this sum. The standard accommodation fee is $800. As a matter of fact every foreign student is guaranteed to get a place in a student dormitory where convenient location and necessary conditions for life, study and recreation are provided.

To conclude, it’s vital to mention that Belarus is a good place to study. It’s a harmonious and calm country with extremely tolerant people. Moreover the purity and simplicity of Belarusian land makes it one of the few remaining places on our planet where one can see the amazing miracle of the untouched nature.