Modern trends in preclinical education at the Medical Universities of the former Soviet Union Republics

Abstract

Background Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, its former republics have undergone significant changes in their educational systems. Among these reforms, the introduction of Problem-Based Learning (PBL) was one of the most notable projects aimed at modernizing the curriculum and developing teamwork skills, critical thinking, and creativity. Many medical universities accepted the idea of transitioning from classical methods of teaching and learning to learner-centered technologies, but in reality, it became quite challenging. In this article, we present updates on the transition from traditional to integrated curricula in the medical universities of post-Soviet countries and analyze the reasons for their success or failure. Material and methods The search was conducted in May 2025 using PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar, encompassing all publications in English and Russian, regardless of publication date or country of origin. We also considered the opinions of our colleagues from universities in post-Soviet countries, which they shared at international morphological congresses starting in 2014. Results Most of the medical universities of the former Soviet republics still implement traditional Flexner-inspired curriculum with subject-based approaches and viva examinations conducted independently by preclinical departments. The most successful examples of the introduction of PBL and integrated curriculum are emphasized. Conclusions The power of educational traditions is very high in the medical universities of the post-Soviet space; however, there are ways to overcome this using the experience of successful implementations of integrated curricula and problem-based learning in several universities of the former Soviet Union republics.