Palacký University Olomouc’s Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry is the first in the Czech Republic to pass the demanding external evaluation to receive accreditation from the Association of Medical Schools in Europe (AMSE), which confirms the high quality and European standards of medical studies in Olomouc.
UP FMD, together with five other medical schools in Europe, was subjected to the detailed evaluation of its General Medicine study programme as part of a pilot project launched by the association. AMSE accreditation guarantees the quality of education provided for medical applicants as well as hospitals and healthcare facilities as their future employers.
“This is an important success for us. The fact that our medical faculty has become the first in the Czech Republic and one of the first in Europe to receive the European certification is mainly due to the efforts by previous faculty management and to the long-term cultivation of the General Medicine curriculum during the era of my predecessors,” said Dean Josef Zadražil, who has been in charge of the faculty since June.
According to Dean Emeritus Milan Kolář, this is a confirmation that the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry is a recognised educational and scientific research institution. “Among other things, this accreditation means that our diploma will be one of the most recognised and highly sought-after in the European Union, and many European hospitals will give preference to medical graduates with this. At the same time, it is necessary to realise that it is also a commitment to further development, i.e. maintaining this seal of European quality,” added Kolář, current Vice-Dean for External Relations, who feels that the entire academic community of the faculty deserves respect for their conscientious and outstanding work.
The Olomouc faculty underwent the demanding evaluation during the past two years. In addition to the assessment of documentation on the faculty and its study programme, this spring there was also a several-day inspection by the evaluation committee made up of German experts. The evaluators appreciated, among other things, the modern facilities used for education, the comprehensiveness of the curriculum and the continuity of individual subjects, the functional evaluation of the teachers, and the above-standard collaboration of the faculty with University Hospital Olomouc.
The conclusion of the evaluation also mentions some negatives and further recommendations, for example in the area of practical training, greater involvement of students in research projects, and further in-service training and teacher development.
The UP Faculty of Medicine has received the AMSE accreditation for one year. Once the before-mentioned objections have been resolved, the accreditation will be extended until 2024.