April 6, Pozirk. Belarus will eliminate all tuition-based places at medical schools for the 2026/2027 academic year, Volha Kalupanava of the health ministry has announced.
Tuition-based education will be limited to part-time pharmacy programs, she added.
Authorities plan to increase the number of available spots in state-funded medical programs by 760 in the new academic year to admit 3,615 full-time students and 55 part-time students, the official said.
Up to 70 percent of students are expected to be enrolled in a targeted enrollment scheme, which is based on the healthcare sector’s current needs. Under this program, all doctors are required to work in their assigned positions for at least five years on graduation, compared with a two-year work obligation for students in other regular state-funded programs.
The move may be designed to tackle a shortage of physicians as many healthcare workers fled the country, fearing politically-motivated persecution after the 2020 political crisis in Belarus.
As of early April, the official job bank listed 2,616 openings for physicians and 2,288 for nurses.
Access to medical care in Belarus is steadily deteriorating due to ongoing politically-motivated reprisals, said an independent report compiled last year on the country’s compliance with its human rights obligations under the fourth Universal Periodic Review (UPR).
