Introduction. The sudden transformation of institutes into universities and academies is one of the most significant metamorphoses of the Russian higher education system during the restructuring period. The traditional university autonomy granted to the newly-minted «status» universities was mainly the need to earn their own means of subsistence. This democratization of universities was limited, since otherwise their educational activities are regulated by two fundamental documents: a roadmap and the federal state higher educational standard of several generations. The temptation of freedom had its impact, and the higher educational establishments initiated interinstitutional innovations resolutely and at their own discretion. The team of the Kursk State Medical University, Ministry of Health of Russia, was not immune to the reforms. In 2013, due to the need to give priority training work to clinical departments, the discipline «Topographic Anatomy and Operative Surgery» that is extensive and important from the practical point of view was transferred from third-grade Semester 6 to second-grade Semester 4; and this regulation remained for 5 years. Objective. To attempt to establish a relationship between the academic achievements of medical students and the location of an academic discipline in the basic education program using as an example the course of �Topographic Anatomy and Operative Surgery� at the Kursk State Medical University, Ministry of Health of Russia. Subjects and methods. The study is based on a comparative analysis of academic achievements in 1,744 fourth-grade students and 1,747 third-grade ones of the medical faculty for two periods: 7 years before and 5 years after transfer of the discipline to the second year. Results and discussion. Comparative analysis of the mean values of intermediate certification (examination) for the discipline «Topographic Anatomy and Operative Surgery» revealed an apparent decline in the academic achievements in junior students during all 5 years of the experiment, and it was, therefore, decided in 2017 that initiation of its teaching should be returned to third grade. As a result of the introduced innovation, the Department of Operative Surgery and Topographic Anatomy lost for a year its basic educational contingent, the students of the medical faculty. Conclusion. The temporal hierarchy of disciplines taught at a medical university, which has been tested for many decades, considerably affects academic achievements in students. Their semantic and functional relationship should remain to be the most careful object of administrative influence and all the more insufficiently considered educational experiments.