Yerevan State Medical University after M. Heratsi (YSMU) has 100 years history of teaching medicine. Being a leader in higher medical education field in Armenia it has remarkable experience of international medical students’ education since 1957. Currently every fourth student at YSMU is a foreign citizen. YSMU has its unique place in regional and global market of higher medical education services. Armenia undertook fruitful efforts on national level to adopt state policy on integration into European Higher Education Area that led to simplification of academic recognition. Whereas there are obvious obstacles for professional recognition of regulated professions, and there are much differences from country to country.

Global tendencies for higher standards of education quality, medical licensing, and state-specific regulations and procedures for medical qualifications worldwide forces education providers to follow constantly changing regulatory requirements.

YSMU has an institutional policy on continuous self-assessment for curriculum development and improvement. As a result of two successful Institutional State Accreditation procedures with participation of international experts, most typical issues raised by education experts and university graduates were included in QA improvement plan. Taking into account the ongoing institutional activities on recognition of awarded degrees and qualifications worldwide we performed in-depth analysis of curriculum structure of YSMU Integrated MD Academic Program (MD AP) (tuition period - 6 years) for promotion of international recognition of medical degrees and students’ mobility.

In screening research 19 International Universities from 17 countries providing higher medical education and awarding MD or equivalent degree were used to compare them with YSMU MD AP. Curricula were collected from open sources — universities official websites. Selection criteria: most popular directions for YSMU graduates further studies and labor markets, most popular directions for YSMU student mobility—EU (14 countries, 15 universities) and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region (3 countries, 4 universities)—availability of curriculum at the website. Structural components of curriculum—availability and workload of modules, types of modules and modules groups, placement in the curriculum—were studied. Data analyzed with the use of manifest and latent content analysis methodology. Armenian state higher education regulations and ECTS Users’ Guide were used to define substantial difference between workload of modules.

Data suggest that YSMU MD AP has mainly traditional discipline-based structure similar to those of CIS, Eastern and Central European universities Academic Programs. In YSMU MD AP Curriculum framework there are some highly specialized clinical modules, not common for the majority of similar programs. But we do not consider it to be a substantial difference, since the names of the modules, structures, content, intended learning outcomes are consistent with the professional learning outcome-based approach. This can be explained by peculiarities of Armenian Health Care system and by the fact that YSMU is also one of the leading health care providers in Armenia, having high class academics, healthcare professionals and three university hospitals. YSMU lacks multidisciplinary modules compared to Western European countries. YSMU MD AP Humanitarian and Social-Economic modules group is obviously excessive, that is explained by the Armenian Higher Education Law and Regulation requirements on some mandatory modules. In YSMU MD AP Biomedical modules group there is a high degree similarity of structures and workloads as compared with studied universities. In the majority of screened universities clinical modules are studied slightly earlier in the curriculum. Total workload for clinical educational units is somehow higher with that of international universities, however it varies from modules group to modules group: the least difference is noticed in Pediatric, Obstetrical and Gynecological modules group and the biggest difference in the Preventive Medicine modules group. Thus, results of screening research elucidate the main path for further prospective curriculum innovation directions for YSMU MD AP: the need to place clinical modules on earlier years of study and increase total workload. Continuous structural improvement of YSMU MD AP curriculum should be performed considering outcome- and competency-based approach and implementing the principles of constructive and vertical alignment.

European Commission, Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture, ECTS users' guide 2015, Publications Office, 2017, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2766/87592