Transformation of higher medical education in crisis in Ukraine

Abstract

This article explores how Ukrainian higher medical education operates in times of crisis. In the tough years of 2020-2024, Ukrainian students faced new challenges, namely a shift from traditional to distance education, including hybrid and blended learning with time. All educational process participants were forced to master previously unknown educational platforms and change the format and methods of future medical specialists` professional training. In the current crisis, considering students` and teachers` views and experiences is the main decision-making source aimed at improving the national higher education transformation. The research focuses on the students` experience and attitude to blended learning. The results of the survey conducted among Bogomolets National Medical University students are used as a basis, giving a clear insight into the rapid higher medical education shift to a new format, such as blended learning. Made in Google Forms, the questionnaires were randomly sent to students online. In the crisis conditions, national medical institutions reorganized educational services into a blended format autonomously and within a short time due to various technical capabilities and financial resources. The obtained data suggest that the crisis conditions have accelerated national higher medical education digitalization. Moreover, they also make it possible to identify positive and negative trends in the national higher medical education transformation and outline promising learning formats from the student's perspective in the future.