Semmelweis University

Founded in 1769, Semmelweis University (Hungarian: Semmelweis Egyetem) is the oldest medical school in Hungary. The faculty became an independent medical school after the Second World War and developed into a university teaching medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, health sciences, health management as well as physical education and sport sciences. The university is named after Ignác Semmelweis (1818-1865), the obstetrician who discovered the cause of puerperal fever in the 1840s.

The university has over 11,000 students from 60 nations over five continents. Its five faculties offer courses from undergraduate to doctorate level in Hungarian, English and German. Foreign students account for about 18% of the total community.

Semmelweis University is the largest health care institution in Hungary with over 9,000 employees covering approximately six per cent of the health care needs of the country’s population. The university has several clinics along Üllői Avenue near Klinikák (Clinics) and Nagyvárad tér metro stations.

Semmelweis is a multi-campus university. The medical departments and the University Clinics occupy a huge area on the Pest side of the Hungarian capital. With a quarter of a million of books, the Semmelweis University has one of the biggest and best furnished medical-biological collections in Hungary, and among the Hungarian universities Semmelweis produces the greatest number of publications. The university is deeply involved in the patient care of the Great-Budapest region. Out of its 3000 clinical beds 75% takes part in the regional medical care and some special outpatients' departments also supply the teaching hospitals with patients needed by the training.

The portrait of Maria Theresa in the Assembly Hall of the University still commemorates the founding of the Medical Faculty by the Empress of Austria-Hungary more than 230 years ago, forging a continuous link in the education and training of medical students.

The name of the institution honors Ignác Semmelweis, a former professor of the Medical Faculty between 1855-1865, who discovered the cause and prevention of puerperal fever. Semmelweis was the first Hungarian university, which started to offer international courses at the Faculty of Medicine in German in 1983. The English programs started four years later, in 1987. Nowadays, the university enrolls more than 200 new international students each year. Still, students from Germany form the majority of the international student body, although the number of students from Israel, Scandinavia and Cyprus shows a constant growth.

The General Medicine program is listed by the WHO and it is recognized without any licensing examinations in all European Union countries (- applies to the nationals of the member states.)

The program leading to the Doctor of Medicine degree, consist of six years: two years of general medical studies, three years of clinical studies and one year of a rotating internship. The international programs in Medicine started in 1983 in German and in 1984 in English. Each year approximately 120 international students are enrolled at the English program, mostly from the EU, Norway, Israel, Cyprus, Iran, and the USA.

The Semmelweis University seeks motivated candidates for the program with a solid background in Biology and Chemistry. In addition to these subjects you have to pass an entrance exam in English as well. The application deadline is in April and the course starts in September. Enrtrance exams are arranged at several locations in Europe, Israel, North America, Asia and Africa.