President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Japarov signed a decree «On the Introduction of a State Monopoly on the Training of Medical Specialists.» The document was published on the president’s official website.
According to the decree, the measure is aimed at fundamentally improving the system of training medical and pharmaceutical personnel, conducting comprehensive scientific research on priority healthcare issues, ensuring the effective use of resources of educational institutions, and strengthening their material and technical base.
«In recent years, there has been a rapid increase in the number of private medical educational institutions. However, most of them lack the necessary clinical facilities, their teaching staff do not meet qualification requirements, and the educational process is largely reduced to the formal issuance of diplomas with minimal practical training,» the statement reads.
This situation, it notes, has led to a systemic crisis in medical training, exacerbating the shortage of healthcare professionals in the country and creating risks to national security, including illegal migration and unauthorized employment of foreign students.
The decree provides for:
- Establishing a state monopoly on the training of medical specialists, granting the I.K. Akhunbaev Kyrgyz State Medical Academy the status of a system-forming state university with exclusive rights to provide higher medical and pharmaceutical education, as well as retraining and advanced training of medical and scientific personnel.
- Approving state accreditation for higher medical educational institutions.
- Introducing a unified state educational standard for medical specialties.
- Ensuring the inseparable link between educational progress and clinical practice in state medical institutions.
- Minimizing corruption risks and enhancing transparency in the medical education system.
- Establishing an interdepartmental commission with representatives of state bodies to assess the compliance of private medical universities with licensing, accreditation, and qualification requirements, including faculty qualifications, availability and condition of clinical facilities, and the state of educational and material-technical infrastructure.
The Cabinet of Ministers has been instructed to:
- Develop and approve unified state educational standards for medical and pharmaceutical specialties by January 1, 2026;
- Develop and approve the procedure for state accreditation of medical universities by March 1, 2026.
The Ministry of Health has been tasked with carrying out state accreditation of private medical universities by June 1, 2026.
Thus, private medical universities will retain the right to continue their educational activities until they undergo state accreditation.
Accredited institutions may later be transformed into branches or structural subdivisions of the Medical Academy and placed under its full academic and methodological supervision.
Private medical universities that fail accreditation will be allowed to operate only as pre-university preparatory courses or as educational and clinical bases, also under the Medical Academy’s academic and methodological oversight.
