The higher education at the post-Soviet territories: the long echo of the Bologna process

The objective of the present work was to analyze the possibilities envisaged by the Bologna system for the improvement of the quality of higher medical education at the post-Soviet territories. Any academic innovations including, in the first place, the accession to the Bologna process should be assessed in terms of their influence on the quality of education. This article describes the main factors responsible for the impaired quality of specialist training and the unjustified growth in the number of students in the combination with the loss of motivation to study. The arguments are provided in support of the opinion that the principles of the Bologna Declaration work fairly well only In the framework of the western educational model, but even there their widespread implementation not infrequently gives rise to contradictory and conflicting attitudes. At the same time, the two-level training systems deserve attention, firstly as a mechanism facilitating transition of a student to another speciality after he (she) completes the first-level course and, secondly as a means to shorten the total length of training. It is demonstrated that the competency-based model regarded as an exclusively European innovation has actually been borrowed from the Soviet higher education system. The devastating consequences of the total transition to the modular education are discussed.