The Kyrgyz government has begun a fundamental reform of the higher medical education system and introduced a state monopoly in this sector. This was reported by Upl.uz.
The decision signed by President Sadyr Japarov was adopted in response to a systemic crisis that arose in the training of personnel for national healthcare. The Kyrgyz State Medical Academy named after I.K.
Akhnbaev was designated as the central element of the new model. This higher education institution holds a system-forming status and receives exclusive authority in training specialists in the fields of higher medical and pharmaceutical education.
Additionally, the KSMA will become the sole center for retraining and advanced training of current medical and scientific personnel. Strict standards have been established for private higher education institutions in the medical field.
They must undergo mandatory state accreditation by June 1, 2026. This process will be carried out by the Ministry of Health.
Institutions that successfully pass accreditation will not retain their independence; their activities will be transformed into branches or structural units of the KSMA and will come under full academic and methodological supervision. The fate of institutions that fail accreditation is clear.
They will lose the right to provide full education under higher education programs. Their activities will continue only in the form of preparatory courses or educational-clinical bases, which will also be under the supervision of the state medical academy.
The official document highlights the irregular growth in the number of private higher medical education institutions in recent years. Most of them have serious shortcomings, including a lack of clinical bases necessary for practical training of students, insufficient qualification of teachers to meet required standards, and an educational process focused solely on awarding diplomas.
According to the Presidential administration's assessment, this situation results in hundreds of low-qualified specialists graduating annually. This not only weakens trust in the national medical education system but also seriously damages the international reputation of the Kyrgyz diploma.
The problem of "idea universities" or "diploma mills" in medical education is not unique to Kyrgyzstan. In the early 2010s, a similar situation occurred in India, where many medical colleges existed only on paper, leading to extensive inspections and reforms of the accreditation system.
