INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION OF THE ECAQA

The Eurasian Centre for Accreditation and Quality Assurance in Higher Education and Health Care (ECAQA) was granted World Federation for Medical Education (WFME) recognition status on October 10, 2022, valid until October 31, 2032 and applicable to the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Republic of Uzbekistan.

WFME has received strong evidence that ECAQA’s accreditation process, post-accreditation monitoring, and decision-making in accrediting medical universities and educational programmes are in line with good practice in accreditation.

https://wfme.org/news/two-more-agencies-awarded-wfme-recognition-status-4/

ECAQA is the first specialised accrediting agency in the Eurasian region and Eastern Europe to be recognised by the World Federation for Medical Education.

WHY IS THE WFME RECOGNITION STATUS NECESSARY?

The World Federation for Medical Education's recognition of an accrediting agency covers quality assurance in basic medical education (a bachelor's degree program), allowing applicants to satisfy the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates' (ECFMG; https://www.ecfmg.org/accreditation/) requirement to apply for US medical residency programs beginning in 2024.

The ECFMG has determined that, in 2024, applicants to this commission (for eligibility for the USMLE Step 1 and Step 2 CK, CS exams and admission to US residency programmes, https://www.usmle.org/) will be required to have completed their studies at an accredited medical school (medical educational programme).

In order to meet these requirements, the medical school that the graduate completes must be accredited through an accreditation process that uses standards and criteria comparable to those established by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME, https://lcme.org/about/) for US medical schools or that uses other standards and criteria adopted and endorsed by the World Federation for Medical Education.

The WFME Recognition Status ensures that graduates of ECAQA-accredited bachelor's degree programmes in General Medicine at medical schools in the Republic of Kazakhstan meet the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) requirements for entry into postgraduate clinical residency programmes in the United States beginning in 2024.

WORLD FEDERATION FOR MEDICAL EDUCATION, WFME

The World Federation for Medical Education (WFME) is an international organisation aiming to enhance the quality of medical education worldwide. WFME works to support healthcare for all through promoting high quality in medical education for the estimated current physician workforce of 9.8 million (WHO, 2015) and prospective students and trainees.

WFME was established in 1972 by the World Medical Association (WMA) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Regional Associations of Medical Education (voting members of WFME):

• AMEE: The Association for Medical Education in Europe
• AMEEMR: Association for Medical Education in the Eastern Mediterranean
• AMSA: Association of Medical Schools in Africa
• PAFAMS: The Pan-American Federation of Associations of Medical Schools
• SEARAME: Southeast Asian Regional Association for Medical Education
• WPAME: Western Pacific Association for Medical Education

The Directory of Organizations that Recognize/Accredit Medical Schools (DORA) lists around 120 organisations.

To date, 32 accrediting agencies have been recognised by WFME, and another 18 agencies have formally commenced the process.

WORLD FEDERATION FOR MEDICAL EDUCATION RECOGNITION PROGRAMME

The World Federation for Medical Education Recognition Programme delivers an independent, transparent and rigorous method of ensuring that accreditation of medical schools worldwide is at an internationally accepted and high standard. WFME evaluates compliance of accrediting agencies with pre-defined criteria.

THE PROCEDURE FOR RECOGNISING ECAQA BY WFME

As part of the WFME recognition programme, a working group of ECAQA (which included staff, experts, and students) has prepared a self-assessment report using the WFME Recognition Criteria.

On April 18–22, 2022, the World Federation for Medical Education (WFME, wfme.org) Recognition Team visited the Eurasian Centre for Accreditation and Quality Assurance in Higher Education and Health Care (ECAQA) in the framework of the international external evaluation of the accrediting agency. The WFME Recognition Team included team leader Tamar Sanikidze, former Minister of Education and Science of Georgia, and team members Barbora Kolarova (Czech Republic), Agostinho Moreira de Sousa (Portugal), and Aikaterini Dima (Great Britain).