Kursk State Medical University

Kursk State Medical University was established in 1935. The past years have been ones of improving the teaching process organization, developing the scientific potential and practical health care, reinforcing the material and technical base. The University has become well-known in the country. Outstanding scientists and practical health care workers are graduates of the University. In 1994 the higher institution obtained the status of a university. Currently it is a multi-profile medical university and a medical educational and cultural centre in the Central Black Earth and Kursk regions thanks to the contributions and efforts of our professors, teachers, staff members. We are proud of fully competent medical professionals who dedicate their lives to promotion of educational and professional excellence.

In 2004 by the decision of the independent public council “European quality” KSMU is listed in the top 100 universities in Russia. The organizational structure and the material and technical base of the university are constantly changing. To-day the university comprises: a library with a fund of more than 500 thousand copies, Research Institute of Ecological Medicine, a consulting diagnostic policlinic, medical institute, four teaching buildings, five comfortable student hostels, three sport halls, a shooting gallery, a canteen, a café and buffets in the teaching buildings and hostels. The university has a licence of the Ministry of general and professional education to conduct educational activity. Post-diploma education is realized in internship, residency training, post-graduate studies. Training of personnel is provided in 4 specialities of doctorate.

The university has trained over 25000 specialists. The instruction is offered at 14 faculties. Annually 700 applicants become students of the university. More than 5000 students are trained at 67 departments. The academic staff of 633 specialists comprises 92 D.Sc. and 333 Ph.D., 2 honoured scientists of the Russian Federation, 2 honoured workers of higher education of the Russian Federation, 1 honoured culture worker of the Russian Federation, 14 honoured physicians of the Russian Federation, 32 academicians and corresponding members of the Russian academies including international ones.

The form and the contents of the educational process have changed, up-to-date methods of instruction and knowledge assessment are being improved: multimedia and problem lectures, lectures-dialogues, computer technologies for training, business games, different kinds of testing, rating knowledge assessment. The centre for information technologies of training, the centre for practical training, the centre of quality management, the department of humanitarian education, interdepartmental teaching display classes, internet-classes have been organized. The training is based on the application of the research results and innovative technologies, initiated by the Department for administration of innovative activity of the university. Principally new information and teaching environment promotes achievement of educational goals and improving the training quality of graduates. The university concluded agreements on cooperation with the leading medical institutions of the Ukraine, Byelorussia, Kazakhstan. KSMU was the first among the medical higher institutions to start training in English that resulted in a possibility to train more than a thousand students from 34 countries worldwide.

On the base of the university there are 12 scientific schools, numerous scientific laboratories, 5 councils for defending Ph.D. and D.Sc. theses, Central – Black Earth Centre of RAMS. The university scientists have won recognition both in Russia and throughout the world. Our scientists are the authors of two scientific discoveries. Research and practical herald “Human Health” was included in 2007 into the list of publications of the Ph.D. theses investigation results on the recommendation of the State Commission for Academic Degrees and Titles. Annually the university organizes traditional instructional and methodical conferences, international, All-Russia and regional scientific conferences, scientific sessions and forums of the student science with subsequent publications of the research results.

The university is a medico-preventive, medico-diagnostic and consultative centre of medical innovative technologies in practical health care. The academic staff of the clinical departments explain the methods of realization of the priority national project “Health” in the region.

Extra-curricular activities involve numerous Centres: of culture and leisure; psychological and social support to students; diagnostics of social health of a student family. Annually the administration of the university holds meetings with all categories of students, residents and post-graduate students. The system of work with the students’ parents, social support of the needy students and promotion of the personality growth are being constantly improved. The following student bodies, and clubs are functioning at the university: “Travel world”’, “Hygienist”, a volley-ball club “Medical student”, a sport club, a camp for psychological adaptation of the first -year students to the academic process at a medical school.

At present complex tasks related to the university joining the European educational area are being solved.

Kursk State Medical University was founded in 1935. During the years of its existence the University has become one of the prestigious higher medical institutions in Russia.

Training of foreign citizens on a contract basis began in December 1991. Training of foreign citizens in Russian medium at the medical faculty began in September 1991. In September 1992 the pharmaceutical faculty was opened. Residency, post-graduate education and internship were opened in 1992. In 1994 Kursk State Medical University was the first among the higher medical establishments in Russia to start teaching foreign citizens in English medium.

The training of foreign students is provided in the following trends: pre-diploma education, diploma education and post-diploma education. Now at Kursk State Medical University there are more than 1100 foreign students 30 countries: Vietnam, Canada, Ghana, Greece, Georgia, Israel, Jordan, India, Yemen, Cameroon, China, Tanzania, Lebanon, Malaysia, Maldives, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Syria, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkmenistan, Sweden, Sri-Lanka, Palestine, Zimbabwe, Armenia, Azerbaijan. Most foreign students come Malaysia, Sri-Lanka and Nigeria.

Student Scientific Union of KSMU

Nowadays, the student scientific union of the KSMU is the union of more than 1500 people interested in getting the skills of scientific work and practice and the development of science in this country.

Nowadays, hundreds of students of KSMU work in the spheres of science and innovation. The development of student science and the realization of students in the sphere of innovation are the priorities of the work in KSMU.

Naturally, it is not easy to coordinate the work of such an amount of people. This task is imposed on the Board of the SSU of KSMU, with Professor V.A. Korolev at the head.

The Chairman of the Union is the four-year student of the Faculty of Medicine Shevchenko N. At the present time there are 13 students in the Union, with their definite duties, among which cooperation with departments and Deans’ offices of the university, public relations, coordination of subject competitions and award of the winners.

The student scientific union of KSMU cooperates with the unions of other universities of the Russian Federation and the neighbour states for experience exchange and holding joint scientific conferences and fora.

The SSU of KSMU interacts with the young scientists union. So, 'School of Young Scientists’, joint conferences and shows are the results of this interaction.

For 75 years the Annual final inter-university scientific conference of students and young scientists has been held. The aims of this event are the following: to figure out the total of scientific work of the university, the realization of projects and to award the winners of different competitions.

So, the SSU is not only the student council, but the team of people aimed at support for future scientists and providing appropriate conditions for their realization in the research sphere.

For young people studies time at a higher institution is a period for harmonization of personality and social interests, formation of social, creative activity.

The most important way of providing such an integral cultural and creative development of a young man personality is a process of moral and aesthetic education of students.

To realize this process, faculties of public professions (FPP) were opened in the 60’s. In November 1993 T.I. Gapontseva headed this faculty, the latter was reorganized into the faculty of additional education in 1994.

The basic trends of the faculty were as follows:

• Additional professional education of students at the department of additional professions.
• Moral and aesthetic education and up-brining of students at the art department.
• Organizing leisure of students.
• In 2005 the faculty of additional education was reorganized into the Centre of culture and recreation.

Short-term courses in different programmes were available at the department of additional professions: “Classical massage”, “Biologically active points. Point massage”, “Computer knowledge”, “English”, “German”, “Sanitary and chemical analysis of food stuff”, “Psychological support by telephone”, etc. The coursers were popular not only with the students but also with the university staff, as the offered an opportunity to widen knowledge in one of the trends of the basic educational activity, to acquire additional skills. The graduates of this faculty work in different medical institutions, social safety services, information technology centre, display rooms, etc.

Nowadays, the library is one of the leading structural units of the university, providing the educational process and research work with all the necessary literature and information. It is the centre of advancement of knowledge, spiritual and intellectual intercourse and culture.

With fast development of university education, opening of new faculties and specialties the library has active work on forming the fund and its safety, perfection of service and the system of informational support based on computerization.

The fund of the library is a rich collection of scientific, educational, foreign literature. It has approximately 500 000 copies. The library gets more than 30000 copies per year. The unique collection of rare books in Medicine of the XVIII-XX centuries is the pride of the library.

The teaching staff, post-graduates, students and practical physicians are library readers (the average amount of them is 9 000 people per year including 6 000 students).

Traditionally, the library uses different forms of showing its book collection: book shows, the browsing of literature. A lot of events connected with student acculturation are held in the library (reader’s conferences, literature meetings are among them).

The library is the huge information repertory with card and electronic catalogues. Since 1990 the library has had its subject catalogue on Mesh system of the National medical library of the USA.

The modern stage of development of the library is characterized by some changes of the main priorities of its work with some new aims. Together with keeping book collections, the function of the information centre, with good data bank, is added. The interlibrary technologies and forms of work with readers are changed.

It is hard to imagine the library work without computer technologies. Nowadays modern personal computers, printers and scanners are used. All the main library processes are automated. The local library net has been formed.

In 2004 the electronic library, a special information system for saving and using documents of different types in the electronic form, was opened. It is allowed for the readers to access bibliographic data banks and some other information products in the electronic form.

In the structure of the library there is a bookstall for the needs of students and teachers in literature. The bookstall organizes the realization of fringe collections and idle literature from the library, materials published by the departments of the university, stationary staff.