Republic 90 years ago, in 1930, already far from us. Over its glorious history, our university has come a long way in becoming one of the leading medical universities not only in Uzbekistan, but also in the entire Central Asian region.
In 1930, by Resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of Uzbekistan No. 80 dated May 7, 1930, the State Uzbek Medical Institute (GUZMI) was founded in the city of Samarkand. This was a big event for the population of the Central Asian region, since there was no independent medical higher education institution in this region.
The Samarkand State Medical Institute (since April 2022 - University) received special development after the republic achieved independence. In 1997, the country adopted the “National Personnel Training Program”, and in 1998 the state health care reform program, which resulted in the creation in 1999 of the Faculty of Higher Nursing. In 2001, a department was opened, and since 2005, the Faculty of Medical Pedagogy, and in subsequent years the faculties of Dentistry, Preventive Medicine, Medical Biology, Pharmacy, and since 2020, students have been studying in the new direction “Traditional Medicine”.
In 2020, the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic radically affected all areas of life in almost all countries of the world. There are even suggestions that the changes are so profound that we will have to adapt to them, in the sense of constant compliance with sanitary and epidemiological requirements.
This pandemic has also had a profound impact on education and training. Our University, like all educational institutions of the republic, switched to distance learning from the first days of the pandemic. Since 2013, its own electronic learning platform was created and successfully functioned, and the entire learning process from April until the end of the academic year took place on it.
Due to the specifics of our university and the fact that the main backbone of its human resources consists of healthcare workers, it is natural that from the very beginning of the introduction of quarantine they were completely able to quickly rearrange all work to meet the requirements of distance learning. From the beginning of the 2020-2021 academic year, a completely new electronic platform of the institute began to function for conducting classes online; all main educational materials were translated into electronic format and placed in specially created virtual resource databases, to which all teachers and students have access.
The university has established cooperation with such well-known foreign universities as the Volga Research Medical University, Chuvash National University named after I.N. Ulyanov (RF), Ternopil National Medical University named after Ya.B. Gorbachevsky (Ukraine), Graduate School of Business National Louis University (Poland), Belarusian State Medical University (Republic of Belarus) for undergraduate and graduate training in several specialties under the double degree program. Personnel training is actively underway under the second higher education program together with the Korean side. Also, starting from the 2020-2021 academic year, admission of students from IRP and India has begun, who also intend to obtain higher medical education within the university.
On December 24, 2021, the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan signed two important documents regarding fundamental changes in the higher education system “On additional measures to ensure the academic, organizational and managerial independence of state higher educational institutions” and “On measures to ensure the financial independence of state higher educational institutions.”
The adopted documents opened a new page in the development of the country's universities. In accordance with these documents, universities will have such rights and opportunities as the creation and publication of textbooks and other educational and scientific literature based on their own plan for the higher educational institution and its branches; creation and implementation of internal control mechanisms for the quality of education; implementation of main activities related to education, science, implementation and commercialization of its results, creation of non-state structures, commercial and non-profit organizations; approval of the structure of the institution and determination of staffing levels, regardless of the standards established for higher educational institutions; opening new directions and specialties based on the needs of the labor market, cessation of existing directions and specialties; establishing a procedure for hiring, dismissing and internal rotation of teachers and other employees; admission of foreign citizens on a paid basis and organization of distance learning. The rector especially emphasized that these documents not only give rights and independence, but also place special responsibility for their implementation on the institute’s staff.
According to these documents, a list of state higher educational institutions has been approved, which includes Samarkand State Medical University, which are granted financial independence from January 1, 2022. Universities will be authorized to independently make decisions on the issues of determining the cost of education on a paid contract basis, establishing and extending the terms of payment of a paid contract by students, attracting on a contractual basis domestic and foreign professors, teachers and specialists who are able to apply modern pedagogical technologies in the educational process and conduct scientific research. research, establishing wages for foreign highly qualified specialists involved in educational and scientific processes, developing standards for the introduction of full-time positions for professors and teachers, allocating scholarships and grants for students at their own expense, direct purchase of educational and scientific literature, textbooks and teaching aids from foreign countries states from manufacturers who have copyrights, determining the procedure for providing paid services in empty buildings and structures, determining the annual mileage limit for vehicles and requirements for their maintenance.
Starting from the 2022-2023 academic year, the universities included in the list will be given the authority in the academic sphere to approve curricula and plans, as well as qualification requirements; determine the language and form of education; establish terms of study for bachelor's and master's degrees, approve the procedure for scientific supervision of doctoral students and applicants; introduce correspondence, evening, and distance learning for master's degrees; develop and publish textbooks and other educational and scientific literature for universities; determine and implement internal quality control of education. They can also make their own decisions on the transfer of foreign citizens from foreign universities, approve the procedure for their examinations and assessment criteria.
From the 2022-2023 academic year, universities will be able to create structural units engaged in activities in the field of education, science, as well as the implementation and commercialization of research results. Also, universities will independently determine their internal regulations, in particular the dress code. A supervisory board will be created, in which representatives of the heads of the university departments and ministries, as well as the public, will participate. Supervisory boards will receive broad rights and powers in the activities of the university. According to the Resolutions, students, researchers and teachers will have free access to international databases. Literature in university libraries will be digitized and published on the Ministry of Higher Education’s platform “Electronic Library”. All reporting in universities will be transferred to an online format and for this, the Ministry of Higher Education, together with the World Bank, will gradually introduce an Information System for Managing Higher Education Processes. And the exemption from customs duties on the import of educational, scientific, laboratory and special equipment, educational and scientific and methodological literature, educational multimedia products and equipment until 2024 will further strengthen the material and technical base and potential of the university.
Resolution of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev dated April 1, 2022 “On the creation of the Samarkand State Medical University and further improvement of the training system in this field” on the creation of a modern medical university in ancient Samarkand on the basis of the Samarkand State Medical Institute, embodying the most advanced achievements of the domestic and international experience, is, in our opinion, strategically important. Our university has everything necessary for this, including powerful scientific and pedagogical potential, a rich material and technical base, and long-standing traditions of training qualified medical personnel. According to the Presidential Decree, the orientation of the educational process towards the formation of practical skills, the widespread introduction of advanced pedagogical technologies, curricula and innovative materials based on international educational standards, the creation of the necessary conditions to ensure a combination of theoretical knowledge and practice in the clinic and educational base, the development of academic mobility programs for students, teachers and researchers in the framework of cooperation with foreign medical universities, conducting fundamental, applied and innovative research to solve existing problems in medical practice, the gradual introduction of the “University 3.0” concept, which ensures an integral connection of medical education, science, practical healthcare with real sectors of the economy .
Particular attention in the Resolution is paid to the development of the practical orientation of the University, in particular, on the basis of the Samarkand Regional Hospital for Health Restoration, it is planned to create a Research Institute of Rehabilitation and Sports Medicine, a multidisciplinary clinic of the University and a Specialized Children's Surgical Clinic on the basis of the first and second clinics of the Samarkand State Medical Institute, Research Institute of Microbiology, Virology, Infectious and Parasitic Diseases named after L. M. Isaev on the basis of the branch named after L. M. Isaev of the Republican Specialized Scientific and Practical Medical Center of Epidemiology, Microbiology, Infectious and Parasitic Diseases and its clinic, Specialized Scientific and Practical Center for Neurosurgery and Neurorehabilitation, Scientific Center for Immunology, Allergology and Human Genomics.
Currently, education at the university is carried out at 9 faculties in 9 undergraduate areas:
Faculties:
• "Medical Faculty";
• “Faculty of Pediatrics”;
• “Faculty of Medical Pedagogy”;
• “Faculty of Higher Nursing”;
• “Faculty of Dentistry”;
• “Faculty of Pharmacy”;
• “Faculty of Medical Prevention, Public Health and Medical Biology”;
• “International Faculty”;
• “Faculty of Postgraduate Education”
Undergraduate areas
"Medicine";
"Pediatrics";
“Professional education (medicine)”;
"Higher Nursing";
"Dentistry";
"Medical prevention";
"Pharmacy";
“Medical and biological affairs”;
"Ethnoscience";
"Clinical psychology";
“Management: management in healthcare”;
These faculties operate on the basis of 74 departments with 1,190 classrooms equipped with modern computers and 75 multimedia classes. There is an Academic Lyceum at the Samarkand Medical Institute.
