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Abstract
Background: The 1999 Bologna Agreement implies a European harmonization of higher education using three cycles: bachelor and master before doctorate. Undergraduate medical programmes were restructured in only seven of the 47 countries.
Aim: Given the debate about a two-cycle system in undergraduate medical education, providing an overview of experiences in medical schools that applied this structure was the purpose of this investigation.
Methods: In 2009, an AMEE-MEDINE2 survey was carried out among all the 32 medical schools that applied the two-cycle system in medicine. At the end of 2011, a member-check validation using a draft manuscript was carried out to complete an accurate up-to-date impression.
Results: All the 32 schools responded initially; 26 schools responded to the second round. All schools had implemented the two-cycle system (all but one in a 3 + 3 year model) with hardly any problems. All reported smaller or larger curriculum improvements, often triggered, but not caused, by the two-cycle system. No school reported that introducing the system interfered with any desired curriculum development, particularly horizontal or vertical integration.
Conclusion: In 32 of the 442 medical schools in Bologna signatory countries, introducing a two-cycle model for basic medical education was successfully completed. However, harmonization of medical training in Europe requires further international collaboration.