Medical training pilot project in Germany successfully launched

Rīga Stradiņš University (RSU) has successfully launched a pilot project with the academic Lukas Hospital (Lukaskrankenhaus) in the city of Neuss, (Germany) opening up for RSU medical students the opportunity to acquire individual study courses at one of Germany’s leading clinics. The first students who arrived in Neuss for the spring semester have recently passed the required exams and are taking back to the university credit points acquired in four academic study courses: oncology, pulmonology, surgery and haematology.

The cooperation between the RSU and Lukas Hospital in Neuss was launched last year, when the first RSU students were undertaking placement there. Following transfer of certain study courses to the academic hospital, the cooperation went into a more advanced stage of development, demonstrating that RSU is a contemporary university providing a mobile and an internationally-competitive education. “Higher education in the 21st century is no longer bound by national borders as it used to be. The partial implementation of the study process in another EU Member State aligns with the current need to go mobile – it is the future that will account for the improved competitiveness of RSU medical education at the international level. The RSU Senate has agreed on the necessity to develop this direction also in the future,” says RSU rector Prof. Jānis Gardovskis.

Although the first 15 students that have undertaken the said study courses at the clinic were German citizens, RSU is looking forward to offering this option to every English or German-speaking RSU student. “Every stakeholder will benefit from this form of training – RSU, students and also the academic hospital at Neuss. Students appreciate the possibility of undertaking part of their training at a German clinic, to acquire new experience, make contacts and familiarise themselves with their future working environment as they will return back home after graduation. The hospital is not too busy with the training of other students and the medical staff can devote more time to our students. They are also given the possibility to volunteer at the hospital, participate in diverse manipulations and surgical operations and focus upon medical areas of interest for them,” the scope of the pilot project is illustrated by the Dean of the International Student Department Smuidra Žermanos.

The staff of the clinic has marked out the level of qualification and proficiency of our students. The coordinator of the pilot project, Prof. Peter E. Goretzki from Lukas Hospital in Neuss recognises that, “It is a true pleasure to work with competent and highly-motivated young people, and I want to point out that it was a really interesting experience to observe the final exam being taken in an e-environment simultaneously in Rīga and Neuss”. Lukas Clinic was also visited by the Federal Minister of Health Hermann Gröhe (pictured below) who met with RSU students.