Bologna Model of –MD/PhD Program: Observation of PhD students in

LETTER TO EDITOR

Bologna Model of Education–MD/PhD Program: Observation of PhD students in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Edin Begic1,2,3, Emin The reform of the higher education article) in the Web of Science (WoS) Grbic3,4, Venesa Skrijelj 5,6, system and the introduction of the or Current Contents (CC) or in the Danijel Bevanda7,8, Danijela Bologna Process throughout the Uni- reference index database (without Radulovic9,10 versity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, specifying which one). This is added the PhD study became the next step in in order to avoid the experience from 1Department of Pharmacology, of , Sarajevo School of Science and education after the completion of an the region, when in the race to meet Technology, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina integrated study of medicine. Bosnia the criteria, the student does not pub- 2Department of Cardiology, General Hospital and Herzegovina officially accepted lish article that is directly related with «Prim. Dr. Abdulah Nakas», Sarajevo, Bosnia and the principles of the Bologna Process the topic in journals with high impact Herzegovina 3Faculty of Medicine, University of , Tuzla, in the field of education in 2003 (1). In factor (2). Inadequate criteria for de- Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina, at all public fending the PhD dissertation, con- 4 Department of Physiology, Faculty of universities (Sarajevo since 2013, Mo- tribute to the emergence of qualita- Medicine, , Tuzla, Bosnia and star since 2011, Tuzla since 2013, tively uneven dissertations, and thus a Herzegovina Banja Luka since 2015, East Sarajevo minimal increase in knowledge from 5 Department of Infectious Diseases, Cantonal Hospital Zenica, Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina (Foca) since 2015), PhD study is im- a certain field at the local and the 6 PhD student, Faculty of Medicine, University of plemented as a three-year program world level. The purpose of the PhD Sarajevo, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina in the biomedical field, and is final- dissertation should essentially be the 7 Clinic for Internal Diseases, University ized by writing doctoral thesis. Pre- candidate’s contribution to the devel- Clinical Hospital , Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina viously, the old system of study was opment of certain medical area from 8 Faculty of Medicine, , organized through the undergraduate which the dissertation is written, and Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina and postgraduate studies (along with it should provide new knowledge that 9Department of Social Medicine, Faculty of the writing of master’s dissertation), can improve clinical practice. Such Medicine, University of East Sarajevo, Foca, and then writing a doctoral disser- Bosnia and Herzegovina dissertation can certainly find a place 10 Faculty of Medicine, University of East tation with subject and a mentor in in the most high impact journals. As- Sarajevo, Foca, Bosnia and Herzegovina the field of the work of the healthcare piration of some Universities towards worker. At the first private Faculty of science excellence is highly justified Corresponding Author: Edin Begic, MD, MA, Medicine, Sarajevo School of Science and substantiated, and it should be PhD Student. Department of Cardiology, General Hospital “Prim. Dr. Abdulah Nakas”, and Technology, the PhD program essentially the same for all Universi- Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. ORCID will begin with the academic year ties that award the same degree after ID: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6842-262X. E-mail: [email protected] 2018/2019. The fact is that the reform the completion of the studies. The de- of the education system enabled quick sire for academic action in Bosnia and movement through the academic Herzegovina does not go away, re- doi: 10.5455/aim.2018.26.216-218 hierarchy, and fast possibility of gardless of the unfavorable economic, ACTA INFORM MED. 2018 SEPT; 26(3): 216-218 starting the study, but that also led to political or global situation, which is Received: Jul 20, 2018 • Accepted: Jul 30, 2018 many problems for the students, who an exceptionally good thing but is a © 2018 Edin Begic, Emin Grbic, Venesa Skrijelj, Danijel Bevanda, Danijela Radulovic are often not able to fulfill what is ex- little surprising. pected of them. The requirement for Roach and Sauermann pointed out This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non- defending the PhD dissertation is to that 40% of PhD students are not in- Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non- publish an article that covers the part terested in pursuing an academic ca- commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any of the PhD dissertation (data from the reer (3) which is significantly different medium, provided the original work is properly cited. dissertation should be the core of the from the situation in Bosnia and

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Herzegovina (4-9). The interest in B&H is high, and the self. In the end it comes to the fact that at those universi- lists for enrollment from year to year are getting bigger. ties that have set the criteria of scientific excellence, there Through a year or two of the PhD studies (with obligatory are no individuals who complete the study successfully, or modules which are in one or even in all four semesters, de- if they exist, they are sporadic, in other words, they are pending on the University and elective modules that are exceptions that do not confirm the rule. Unfortunately, basically always the same), the student is trained on the public data is not available. methodology of scientific work, with the basic statistical PhD position is a full time job. In B&H it is not treated methods. The third year or the last year is left for writing even as a part-time job, but more like personal interest. of the dissertation itself. The lectures are essentially con- Aside from the funding deficit, time spent for the research fined to the theoretical preparation of the candidates. itself or possibility to partially conduct research abroad After the first year of the studies, most of the universities is often dictated/limited by the employers, consequently in B&H do not organize workshops (which are included forcing PhD students to prolong or change thesis. in the PhD studies plan and program) where student can What to do? Wait for the number of students to accu- acquire practical knowledge and skills in the development mulate, so that the criterion for the defense of the disser- of PhD dissertation. The term of continuing medical edu- tation is lowered. That is wrong and leads to quantity, and cation is something what is not established. The choice of not quality. That also leads to a decline in the universi- a mentor for the writing of the PhD dissertation is left to ty’s rating, because without indexed publications there the student without a clear plan for all students (it should is no progression, and such university is not attractive to be emphasized that these are general studies without spe- anyone. The question of the social and scientific use of in- cialization in certain field). Criteria for the selection of vestment in hyperproduction should be clearly raised (the mentors led to the fact that very small group of individuals sense of large number of Master degree and PhD degree can have that role. The conditions for mentoring at some in science, especially in the field of biomedicine is quite universities are the status of full professor and publications questionable), of which the benefit is for individuals and in CC index base. The aforementioned conditions reduce their titles and there is a little benefit for the science and the possibility of selecting a mentor, or it can happen that society in general. Quit the studies? That should certainly a student cannot write a PhD dissertation from the field not be a reasonable option in the middle of the course with in which he is working, because there is no professor who investments already done without return. The third op- satisfies the mentioned conditions. Some very wide areas tion is to try something on your own, is considered as an (like cardiology) at some universities are tied to only one imperative, with the question of whether it essentially has person, who cannot accept all interested candidates. The a meaning or satisfy ethical standards in science and pub- occupation of highly profiled mentors by day-to-day work lishing (tendency to fabrication and falsification of research is another problem. An administrative problem when se- data, plagiarism), and whether it is possible at all to do so in lecting a mentor from the University from abroad or the such environment because it has a very uncertain outcome. problem with an institution where a student works, when The fact is that something has to be changed. The de- the institution sometimes is not willing to collaborate is a gree of scientific excellence must be preserved and the part of everyday PhD student life, who is essentially help- high quality must be aspired. If the practice of enrollment less in that situation. of a new generation in year after year continues, the stu- The average salary of a healthcare worker in Bosnia and dents need to have infrastructure with high quality, high Herzegovina is miserable, planned funds for scientific re- quality mentoring and counseling, because essentially, in search work in health institutions are not present or are the end, science is powerful tool that one country must use minor, open calls for the development of science in the for its promotion. In the end, it is only right to combine territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, if present, are fi- the maximum of the academic community and students nancially insufficient. The phenomenon of individuals in- themselves, who can only achieve something more with volved in international projects and collaborations is rare, their integrated activities. the emergence of those directly involved in projects sup- This text is written with hope that in a few years there ported by the European Union are even rarer, the labora- will be a new group of PhD students who will analyze the tory equipment of healthcare institutions is rather modest scientific output of this generation of PhD students, and and inadequate, genetic processing is rarity or basic (again from different time point say, whether this generation that depending on equipment) and that are only parts of the strived to scientific excellence, managed to raise the level daily life in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The screening pro- of medical science as well as clinical practice on the terri- gram does not exist in essence, there is no register of cer- tory of Bosnia and Herzegovina. tain pathology or illnesses, with the gap between col- leagues who have studied under the old system of educa- REFERENCES 1. Masic I. Quality Assessment of Medical Education at Faculty tion (undergraduate, postgraduate, doctoral studies) and of Medicine of Sarajevo University – Comparison of Assess- colleagues who are much younger, but with experience far ment Between Students in Bologna Process and Old System of from them, makes it difficult to write the dissertation -it

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