In medical education, the curriculum passes through at least four stages between vision and learning of students namely: "intended" to "planned" to "implemented" to the "learned" curriculum. The most important safeguard for keeping these formats compatible is the quality of the aims and objectives. This editorial describes the hierarchy of the educational objectives, their importance, types, sources, and qualities and best ways to formulate effective learning objectives that link learning and outcomes to the vision and consequent aims. Also, the article highlights the common misjudgements and misuses of the learning objectives which may produce different and certainly poorer outcomes than those planned for .

Background: The first medical college in Iraq was established in 1927, adopting a subject-based curriculum. Aim: To provide a description of undergraduate medical education curricula in Iraq and how they developed since 1927. Methods: We identified Iraqi medical schools and curricula from local and global directories. Curricular data were compared to 3 educational benchmarks (Dale’s effectiveness of teaching methods, SPICES, Miller’s pyramid). We searched for studies describing curricula and modernization. Results: There are 34 medical colleges in Iraq (32 with identified curricula) with a wide scope of visions and aims adopting 3 types of curriculum: subject-based (SBC) 20 (63%), integrated (IC) 10 (31%) and problem-based learning (PBLC) 2 (6%). The majority of updates were SBC to IC, with only 1 moving from SBC to PBLC. The predominant type of curriculum at the start of instruction is SBC or IC. Although PBLC and IC provide opportunities for inquiry-driven competencies in the first 3 years only, none provide such opportunities in the clinical phase (last 3 years). Conclusions: Curricular reform needs to focus on modernizing the learning process/outcomes rather than reorganization of the teaching only. A new approach is needed to provide opportunities for competence and experience to prepare doctors to deal with challenges. One such approach would be the adoption of an outcomes-based curriculum model based on domains of competence with clearly defined outcomes/competencies achievable the time of graduation. All curricula should lead to the achievement of the same outcomes.

Governance and communication represent the foundations for effective impact on the level of institutional performance in higher education colleges, including medical schools. Governance encompasses the frameworks of structures, relationships, and processes ongoing in the college. It is recognized that medical schools in Iraq lack the adoption of a clear mechanism in this field. This article aims to present a proposed protocol for the development of governance and institutional communication in Iraqi medical colleges whose components have been formulated according to the needs of these colleges. The proposal reviews the components, benefits, and foundations of governance according to a number of targeted values, thus presenting a proposed framework for the components of an institutional system for governance and communication. This proposal allows ample discussions among college stakeholders which leads to revision and implementation to fill the gap towards achieving effective and efficient governance that enables the achievement of college goals. The framework addresses number of elements including at least: neutrality in the work and decisions of councils and their strategic and operational roles, the absence of a strategy for senior management, institutional and individual periodic planning, standard operation procedures, job description, key performance indicators, human resource management policies and documentation concepts, and in the forefront of them digital documentation and communication via the Internet and databases.

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