Teaching medicine to international students: acute issues of modern times

International medical education at VSMU . The process of training international students has a long and remarkable history at Voronezh medical university. This year we celebrate the 30^th anniversary of the international medical education here. There were 60 international students in Voronezh in 1992, 87 foreign students were admitted to the International Institute of Medical Education and Cooperation, Burdenko Voronezh State Medical University (VSMU), on September 1, 2022. These are citizens of Palestine, Chad, Congo, Kazakhstan, Republic of Moldova, Syria, Jordan, Ukraine. For the first time, 25 foreign citizens were enrolled in residency educational programs, 24 of students were graduates of VSMU who had successfully passed the procedure for primary accreditation of specialists. Currently, international medical education in Voronezh, as well as in Russia as a whole, has a number of beneficial and problematic issues.

History of the international medical education in Russia . Russian education has always been attractive to foreign applicants. Russian universities have rich experience of teaching international students - foreign applicants appeared in Russian universities at the end of the 19th century. Today, Russian education is still popular with foreign applicants. According to open data from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, today the number of students in the country is about 4 million people.

Of these, 315,000 are international students. Applicants choose leading universities in various regions of Russia. The most popular areas of training are medicine, engineering specialties and IT [1] . Students from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, China, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, India, Egypt, Belarus, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan traditionally come to study in Russia.

Training and education in Russia is featured by certain advantages, among them are a great variety of educational programs, education at any academic level (bachelor's, specialist's, master's, residency), the optimal ratio of price and quality of education. International students have an opportunity to study in English. Online training is not the least point currently: supportive and advanced relations towards online courses is one of the main trends of modern education.

Teaching staff as the active core of medical universities. The goal and result of higher professional education in Russian universities is the concept of "professional competence" - the ability to successfully act on the basis of practical experience, skills and knowledge in solving problems of professional activity. As stated, the quality of education offered by a university is determined by the quality of its teaching staff. They are the most valuable and active core of any university [2; p. 79]. They pass on accumulated knowledge and experience to students, teach them a versatile “vision” of a problem and a creative approach to solving it, thus contributing to the professional development of an individual.

The main goal of the foreign students’ activity is to receive a quality education in the chosen country. The effectiveness of training and adaptation will depend on the quality of knowledge that was obtained in the educational institution of the native country, the specificity of education, the form of organization of the educational process – the duration of work/classes and rest, the schedule, the form of control and assessment of knowledge [3].

Successful adaptation means effective teaching . There are a lot of factors influencing the effectiveness of the process of teaching international students. Obviously, this process in Russian universities is not isolated from the external social and cultural environment. Therefore, an important aspect in developing knowledge effectively for foreign applicants is their successful adaptation to new conditions.

Russia is a multinational state on the border of Europe and Asia with different cultural, household, religious traditions and customs, which benefits international students’ adaptation in the process of studying and living in Russia. Experts say about a cultural exchange that is carried out between the receiving and sending nations: there is a mutual enrichment of cultures, obtaining new knowledge about customs, traditions and features of life [4].

Online medical education – pro and cons . Online medical education being so popular and widespread nowadays is different sides of the same coin. International students of medical universities were asked a question: “Which form of education is more preferable for you: full-time or distance learning?” Sixty-eight percent of the respondents chose the full-time form of education and 32% of the respondents chose distance learning. The most popular and significant reasons for choosing online learning were health-related and time- and cost-saving issues [5].

On-site full-time education was opted by international students for good reasons. The fact is that most of them come to study medicine in Russia due to practice-oriented character of education in Russian medical univer- sities. From the very first year of study students can communicate with patients, perform some manipulations. It has long been noted that it is interaction with real patients that gives the best results when teaching medical students [6, 7].

Conclusion . We only briefly outlined the most acute issues of international medical education at our university and in Russia as a whole. To conclude, it is necessary to mention essentials that can contribute to successful knowledge development by international students:

• 1)    It is necessary to take into account national, cultural and sociolinguistic specificity of students, this will help develop positive communication, manage the educational process more effectively, help a foreign student adapt to the features of life and education in another country. Close contact with a teacher is also very important for these purposes.

• 2)    The problem of educational and methodological support of the educational process remains relevant; therefore, it is necessary to develop and publish electronic/printed specialized, illustrated and adapted for international students’ needs educational literature in English. This remains an important tool for improving the quality of higher professional medical education. Due to the language barrier, visualization is important for a better perception of the material.

• 3)    The linguistic component is no less important. It is essential to develop and improve the language competence in both - students and the teaching staff of medical universities: it is important to teach international students the vocabulary they need in their everyday life and for professional purposes; teaching staff should constantly improve their knowledge of a foreign language to eliminate communicative barriers.

• 4)    Students should be involved in the educational process and extracurricular life of a university. The effectiveness of educational reforms is confirmed by an increased students’ involvement. Tinto in his integration model develops the idea that university expulsion is directly related to student involvement [8]. By encouraging student involvement, dropout rates can be reduced.

It is the success of students, graduates of    the program, that are the components of the the university, their knowledge, abilities,    success of the university as a whole.

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