Medical Education in the World for a Graduate of a Russian School. Part 1.

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Over the New Year’s break of 2023, I found time for my first (by number, but not by importance to me personally) project,
devoted to Medical Education in the World.
I decided on it for the following reasons:
1. I finally had some time (half of my vacation I sat on biology — after all, I have my GCSEs coming up!).
2. I wanted to personally try to at least somewhat understand such an important and complex issue.
3. I wanted to get an update on the possibilities for Russian school graduates to receive a foreign education. in difficult modern conditions.
4. I needed to understand (for me personally) what questions about education in foreign countries I could and should ask the admission commissions of the universities.
Note 1.
It is clear that deciding on such a complicated matter as education abroad — you need to get answers to hundreds of questions.
Is it ALSO possible to get a visa to the country you want or does this country accept Russian certificates, is education expensive, how much does it cost to live in the country, is it possible to get a scholarship, is there a hostel…. is it possible to
stay in the country for further work… and so on-it’s a truly endless list.
It is clear that the answers to some of these questions are available on the websites of universities, some of the answers are available on the websites of the Ministries of foreign affairs ministries and so on-but try to understand in detail just a little bit of Britain-it takes thousands of hours.
a little bit of Britain — it’s thousands of hours!
Therefore the idea arose — to transfer a part of the work on the staff of admission committees of universities, which, to begin with — just better and ten times faster than I navigate in the sites of their institutions.
It remains only to think through the most important issues.
Note 2.
In fact, there are a huge number of companies in the world that do Educational Consulting.
That is, when you know at least approximately what you want, perhaps you should not write directly to all possible universities in the world, but go to one of those companies.
It will not save you money — but it will save a lot of time.
The only trouble is that I have not found in Russia, firms that can unconditionally trust.
So, for example — all the sites of such companies that I visited the Internet — says that, since the training in the schools of Japan lasts 12 years, and in Russia — 11, then you can not go directly to a Japanese university — you must either study in Japan for a year on a course, Or you can enter the first year of Japanese university after you graduate from the first year of Russian university.
But in fact — this is complete nonsense!
In 2019, the Japanese Ministry of Education recognized an 11-year Russian school education as fully equivalent to a Japanese 12-year.
And for the fifth year, Russian students who passed the Unified State Exam can enter any private or public university in Japan.
I will try to put all answers I received on the site, and if I find time, I will write my comments to them.
The project as a whole, I will write in my portfolio in the Diary of a Moscow Schoolboy — honestly, I think no one in Moscow does not engaged in such things more than me).
There was a question — what ranking of universities to work for me?
There is no shortage of rankings in the world right now.
For example the article here mentions more than 20 international rankings, and more than 60 domestic.
To understand this diversity, read the methods and compare them is possible, but it will take a lot of time, and why?
I will say, as an expert, that the best rankings are the Times ranking and the QS World University ranking.
The first one I found the second of them — I used it in my project.
Note 3.
To start working on the project, I had to distinguish the countries where getting an education makes no sense from my point of view at the moment (2023), or is impossible.
I did NOT consider universities in Switzerland — it is impossible for a Russian to get a medical education there.
I have NOT considered education in Australia and New Zealand — very far away and expensive.
I DID NOT consider education in countries with rare and difficult languages (China, Vietnam, South East Asia, India, etc.).
Similarly, I did not consider education in non-mainstream countries in both Americas, although there are of course very good universities, good living conditions (in some countries) and good salaries (in some countries).
I HAVEN’T considered US colleges — because of the different system of medical schooling in the rest of the world — the entrance to U.S. medical school requires a bachelor’s degree, preferably in a medical field (chemistry, biology, etc.)
It is NOT a requirement, but it is a desirable one.
Also, U.S. medical schools are fabulously expensive.
I HAVEN’T considered education in the UK — they have the best universities in the world, but the cost of education and living is extremely high.
Thus my sample included universities in Japan, Korea, most of Europe, and Iceland.
I tried to send letters by country (several universities of one country in one day), because, as it turned out in the first half an hour of work, the logic of building websites of foreign universities is extremely various, and, besides, from country to country the administrations of these universities prefer one or another format of feedback.
So, for example, if you are used to Russian universities’ websites you won’t have any problems with most English-speaking countries’ websites. you won’t have any problems with the sites of most English-speaking countries — you can always find the applicants’ section, the list of faculties and departments.
All European sites usually have a normal e-mail for feedback.
In Japan, there are problems with all of this.
Faculties that are available in the university — hard to find, and emails are almost everywhere replaced by a feedback form (which is also not to find!) ,
It’s usually not just your name in katakana or hiragana — you have to write it in hieroglyphics too!
Korean university websites are a real headache because their logic is so far removed from European logic.
What university, what it is famous for, who it teaches — it is not clear as a rule at all.
I spent half an hour at every site of every Korean university.
It’s just… a holiday!, not websites).
Also in Korea (and partly in Japan) people are very fond of calls), and preferably in messengers that do not work in Russia (Kakao and Line, respectively).
Note 4.
It is very important to understand that training in English as a doctor exists in Europe.
But, as a rule, these are not the main European countries, and education will almost always be paid.
In this case the fee for foreign students (in English language training) in the Baltic countries comes to 10,000 euros per year, and in good universities, for example in Hungary, up to 16,000 euros per year. And do not forget to add to the cost of education and the cost of living.
And in this case there is no point in such education, for the same money you can, with a scholarship, study in London, in London for the same amount of money you can get a scholarship to study at a top 20 university in the world, which gives you incomparable prospects.
And practical skills, of course.
One thing when you are in practice in Germany at the Charité Hospital or the Royal London Hospital, which treats half a million patients a year, and where you see (and cure!) All the diseases in all their diversity.
And quite another thing is a hospital in conditional Klaipeda with 40 beds.
Free education in these (not the main) countries is, as a rule, only in the national language, which is usually difficult, not widespread, has very few native speakers (and therefore no matter how beautiful and sound — useless in real life).
But even in the case of education in national languages, it is often necessary to pass a lot of exams (in the Baltic countries, for example — in the history of these countries), have a residence permit (before applying to the university), and overcome so many different obstacles, that it is easier to learn French or German, by golly It is easier, really, to learn French or German, and get a quality, almost free education in the leading countries.
Below is the text of the first letter I wrote.
This text was changed and reworked for each country, taking into account local specifics, and taking into account the responses received to the letters sent earlier, but in general not much.
In particular, in the first letters poisoned earlier than December 24, I congratulated the recipients on Christmas.
In the letters written after December 26, I wished them Happy New Year.
Text of the letter:
Hey
I am Egor Kugno, a 15-year-old student of the 9th grade of the Moscow school.
I have a small website — https://kugno.ru/, where I write about my studies, exams and publish various answers from the Ministries of Russia
(about paying for tuition abroad, about transferring money for studying, and so on)
For the first 7 years I studied at an ordinary (good) Moscow school, attended additional classes in biology (microbiology) and chemistry;
last year I passed the competition through the entrance exams to the School of Chemistry No. 1501 — No. 10 in the rating of Moscow schools
(this is approximately No. 30 among ALL schools in Russia). Chemistry at school was very good — 6 hours a week, all year
(the standard in Russia is 2 hours a week, now there is no chemistry at all in humanitarian classes), but everything else, except for chemistry,
was unfortunately not very good, and moved to 9th grade to school at the HSE University — there is a little less chemistry here,
but everything else is much better)
Although I still have 2.5 years to study, I started studying the Universities of the World — in order to understand where I can go to study,
what requirements I need to meet, whether to learn languages other than English, which I now study at school, and, of course Will my
parents be able to pay for my education?
Separately, I want to understand whether it is possible to continue working and living in the country where I will study.
At the moment, my main interests are medicine (pathology, chemotherapy and hematology), chemistry (more like running a laboratory)
and pharmaceuticals (more like managing science and research in a pharmaceutical company, but of course with a full understanding of
what scientists and with deep knowledge of biochemistry).
Now I am writing questions, first of all, about medical education, since it is the most complex, expensive, there is a lot of information and
it is most difficult to search for it.
I have looked at the admissions information on your university website, but I have a few questions for you:
1. Is it possible to enter your university after graduating from 11 summer school in Russia — or do I need to take another course at a university in Russia?
I am studying English (from school I will finish with B2.2-C1), and chemistry with biology.
Starting next year, our school will have mandatory participation in the school Olympiads of Russia for — in general,
this is a wonderful school. But we still study for only 11 years.
2. Do you have students from Russia who are studying to be a doctor?
3. Does your university have quotas for training foreigners as doctors (and are there quotas for Russians?)
4. Do I understand correctly — you need to study for 6 years?
5. Does your university have dormitories for students for the entire period of study?
5.1. In the absence of dormitories (or a waiting list for dormitories for five years in advance), can the university act as a guarantor for rental housing?
6. What is the cost of studying and living in a hostel and all other expenses per year when studying to be a doctor at your university
(meaning the costs associated with education — that is, payment for textbooks, laboratories, etc. — not counting, of course, food and expenses for transport)
I know that prices are rising, but the total costs must be understood in advance.
6.1. Are there scholarships for Russians for study and/or living?
7. What exams do I need to take besides English?
7.1. What language certificates do I need to enroll?
7.2. Is it possible to study in English?
7.3. Are internal Russian achievements accepted and important (Participation in olympiads, successful passing of exams in Russian universities)
8. Is it obligatory to take preparatory and/or language courses at your university before entering the university?
9. What is the further procedure for training as a doctor after graduation from the university (postgraduate study, residency, specialization)
and obtaining a doctor’s license (if you know)?
10.Will I be able to work after graduation?
11. If training as a Doctor is not possible, please tell me if it is possible to study as a Pharmacist (if any) and a Chemist
(biotechnology, as an option — chemical technology for pharmacy)
P.S. although I am only 15 years old, I began to seriously look for a university to get a good education. I noticed that many Universities
have information in PDF on their websites.
This, in my opinion, is very wrong.
Not everyone STILL knows English (French, Chinese ….), and such guys, having gone to the website of the university
and not finding information that can be read in Google Translate, will leave forever and will not return.
Sorry for the unsolicited advice))) — but it would be great to have all the information about the university not only in PDF but also in the
form of a simple text on the sites)))
P.S.2. If you have students from Russia, could you give them my email or forward my letter to them?
I would love to talk to them.
Thank you very much again
Egor Kugno
Merry Christmas to you (if you celebrate it)
In the second part of this article, I will publish the lists of universities to which I have written, and my work plan (I work according to the plan, of course, like Mr. Fix, of course), with references that I used for the work.
Note 5
Even after receiving answers from all universities, after processing them, after summing up — it will still not be the whole work, but only a small part of it (the work).
So, working on the rankings, I did not consider in the general case of universities, which are beyond the 500th place in the hierarchy.
And if, say, for Austria, with its 4 medical universities this distinction is not relevant, then in Spain, Italy and Portugal There are many universities behind this line, which basically give some (and probably not bad, since these universities exist) -education.
And it is quite possible, if say, you decide that education in Portugal (and wages of Portuguese doctors, the lowest in developed
Portugal are the lowest salaries in developed European countries)-you should write personally to all universities, and try to get your child personal conditions, discounts, hostels and scholarships.
I’m sure that if you try hard enough, anything is possible.

Other articles about medical education in the world→
This article in Russian→