New Medical Curriculum at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Niš

 Dusica Pavlovic ¹
Dobrila Stankovic-Djordjevic ¹
Milan Visnjic ²
Miroslav Stojanovic <sup>1

1</sup> University of Niš, Faculty of Medicine, Vice Dean, Niš, Serbia
² University of Niš, Faculty of Medicine, Dean, Niš, Serbia

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Poster

Background: The Faculty of Medicine recognizes the importance given to creating and developing a coherent area of European higher education and research. The Faculty therefore welcomes the ongoing process of higher education reform in line with Bologna Declaration, and is willing to participate in all the activities that will help the Faculty reach the European standards.

Strategies and Methods: Establishment of a modern European system of higher learning in accordance with the Bologna process at the Faculty of Medicine in Niš involves the implementation of organizational and personnel student-oriented changes, involving the following:

• Promotion of European co-operation in quality assurance, as well as the introduction of mechanisms for teaching quality control, concerning both curricula themselves and actual teaching performance;
• Improved development of courses and teaching plans at all levels, with Europe-oriented contents and organization, through co-operation with similar foreign institutions towards a mutually recognized diploma;
• Inclusion of students as the partners in education process;
• Rationalization and modularization of teaching programs, transfer to single-semester courses, with lot more practical and individual work, early contact with patients, continual monitoring of student performance and continual knowledge check-ups, introduction of new elective courses, introduction of new learning methods: seminaries, interactive teaching, small-group work, problem solving, team work, summer practice etc.;
• Promotion of a teaching-learning process with new regulations of the studies and per course credit-allocation system in accordance with the European Credit Transfer System -- ECTS.

Conclusion: Establishment of a modern European system of higher learning has resulted in the improvement of the efficacy of studying in a sense that the number of drop-off students is reduced and the duration of studies is shortened; as well as in the better overall achievement during the studies.