Medical students' exposure to urology in European schools: the European Association of Urology proposals for a convergence programme.

During the last 50 yr, medical students’ exposure to urology within European medical schools has been regulated by local academic authorities, following the recommendations of the National Deans’ Conference. Consequently, the profile of urology as an independent European discipline in European medical faculties has been very variable—good in some countries and almost ignored in others [1]. The main purpose of the Bologna declaration was to standardise medical teaching programmes across all European medical faculties. The priority of the Bologna convergence programme was to impose a similar curriculum for all European medical students, whether from Palermo, Warsaw, Edinburgh, Seville, or Bucharest.Because mobility of doctors in the European Union is a constitutional right, similar requirements for both training and knowledge are imperative. Since its initiation in June 1999, as part of the European Higher Education Area, the Bologna process in medicine can be tracked in various reports and has been influenced by initiatives from various 0associations, institutions, journals, and Web sites, including the Association for Medical Education in Europe, the International Federation of Medical Students Association, and the European Medical Students Association.