The First Faculty of Medicine of Charles University () is one of five medical faculties of

Charles University Charles University (CUNI; , UK; ; ), or historically as the University of Prague (), is the largest university in the Czech Republic. It is one of the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest universities in the world in conti ...

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

, Czech Republic. Founded in 1348, at the same time as the university itself, it is the oldest medical faculty in Central Europe and the 11th oldest medical institution in the world. Situated in the centre of Prague, the faculty provides education in all fields of general medicine. It is regularly ranked in the top 1% of medical faculties globally.

History

was established in 1348 and a medieval faculty of medicine was one of the four founding faculties (with the

Faculty of Arts A faculty is a division within a university or college comprising one subject area or a group of related subject areas, possibly also delimited by level (e.g. undergraduate). In North America, academic divisions are sometimes titled colleges, sc ...

, Faculty of Law, and Faculty of Theology). In 1882, as part of the division of the university during the

Austro-Hungarian Empire Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military and diplomatic alliance, it consist ...

, a separate German faculty was founded. The two parallel faculties, one German and one Czech, remained until the foundation of the independent state of Czechoslovakia in 1918, when the German faculty was disbanded. In 1953 the former Faculty of Medicine in Prague was divided into three medical faculties: the Faculty of General Medicine, the Faculty of Pediatric Medicine, and the Faculty of Hygiene. Following the

Velvet Revolution The Velvet Revolution () or Gentle Revolution () was a non-violent transition of power in what was then Czechoslovakia, occurring from 17 November to 28 November 1989. Popular demonstrations against the one-party government of the Communist Pa ...

, these three faculties evolved into the First, Second and Third Faculty of Medicine, respectively.

Admissions

Admission to the faculty is based on performance in high school (Biology, Chemistry and Physics), English proficiency and performance in entrance exams. Entrance examinations are conducted at the university and by some representative offices abroad, and are considered to be among the hardest university entrance exams in Europe. After the entrance exams, MMI interviews are conducted with successful candidates. Most of the international students studying medicine at the institute originate from the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Italy, Greece, Portugal, Israel, Malaysia, India and the Middle East, and more.

Academics

Around 3400 students are enrolled in the First Faculty of Medicine. Most teaching facilities are located in the centre of Prague, near

Charles Square Charles Square (; ) is a city square in the New Town, Prague, New Town of Prague, Czech Republic. At roughly 80,550 m² it is one of the List of city squares by size, largest squares in the world and was the largest town square of the medieval E ...

, I. P. Pavlova and Albertov. The majority of clinical instruction takes place at the General University Hospital in Prague, and other teaching hospitals include the Military University Hospital in Prague, Thomayer University Hospital, Bulovka Hospital and

Motol University Hospital Motol University Hospital () is a large teaching hospital in the Motol area of Prague. It is the largest medical facility in the Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked ...

. The faculty runs

bachelor's A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ( ...

and

master's A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

degrees, and several Ph.D. study programmes. The two main study programmes at the faculty are General Medicine and Dentistry, taught either in English (paid) or Czech (free). The Medicine program lasts for 6 years, and Dentistry for 5 years. The teaching staff consists of around 110 professors, 150 associate professors and around 700 assistant professors. Alongside preclinical and clinical teaching, the faculty is also an active research institution.

Ranking and reputation

The faculty is consistently ranked in the top 1% out of 17000 institutions in the world. It is currently ranked #1 in the Czech Republic and #133 in

clinical medicine Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...

in the world.

Notable Graduates

The First Faculty of Medicine is one of the oldest and most prestigious medical schools in Europe. It has produced numerous notable alumni who have made significant contributions to medicine and other fields. *

Jan Evangelista Purkyně Jan Evangelista Purkyně (; also written Johann Evangelist Purkinje) (17 or 18 December 1787 – 28 July 1869) was a Czech anatomist and physiologist. In 1839, he coined the term " protoplasma" for the fluid substance of a cell. He was one of th ...

(1787–1869): Czech anatomist and physiologist, best known for his discovery of

Purkinje cells Purkinje cells or Purkinje neurons, named for Czech physiologist Jan Evangelista Purkyně who identified them in 1837, are a unique type of prominent, large neuron located in the cerebellar cortex of the brain. With their flask-shaped cell bo ...

in the

cerebellum The cerebellum (: cerebella or cerebellums; Latin for 'little brain') is a major feature of the hindbrain of all vertebrates. Although usually smaller than the cerebrum, in some animals such as the mormyrid fishes it may be as large as it or eve ...

and

Purkinje fibers The Purkinje fibers, named for Jan Evangelista Purkyně, ( ; ; Purkinje tissue or subendocardial branches) are located in the inner ventricular walls of the heart, just beneath the endocardium in a space called the subendocardium. The Purki ...

in the heart. * Franz Hofmeister (1850 - 1922): German pharmacologist, physician and biochemist. Hofmeister (independently and simultaneously to

Emil Fischer Hermann Emil Louis Fischer (; 9 October 1852 – 15 July 1919) was a German chemist and List of Nobel laureates in Chemistry, 1902 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He discovered the Fischer esterification. He also developed the Fisch ...

) was the first to propose that

polypeptides Peptides are short chains of amino acids linked by peptide bonds. A polypeptide is a longer, continuous, unbranched peptide chain. Polypeptides that have a molecular mass of 10,000 Da or more are called proteins. Chains of fewer than twenty ami ...

were

amino acids Amino acids are organic compounds that contain both amino and carboxylic acid functional groups. Although over 500 amino acids exist in nature, by far the most important are the Proteinogenic amino acid, 22 α-amino acids incorporated into p ...

linked by

peptide bonds In organic chemistry, a peptide bond is an amide type of covalent chemical bond linking two consecutive alpha-amino acids from C1 (carbon number one) of one alpha-amino acid and N2 (nitrogen number two) of another, along a peptide or protein chai ...

. *

Carl Ferdinand Cori Carl Ferdinand Cori, ForMemRS (December 5, 1896 – October 20, 1984) was a Czech-American biochemist and pharmacologist. He, together with his wife Gerty Cori and Argentine physiologist Bernardo Houssay, received a Nobel Prize in 1947 for th ...

(1896–1984) and

Gerty Cori Gerty Theresa Cori (; August 15, 1896 – October 26, 1957) was a Bohemian-Austrian and American biochemist who in 1947 was the third woman to win a Nobel Prize in science, and the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Me ...

(1896–1957): Husband and wife were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 1947 for their discovery of the course of the conversion of lactate. *

Emil Votoček Emil Votoček (5 October 1872 – 11 October 1950) was a Czech chemist, composer and music theorist. He is noted for his chemistry textbooks and multilingual dictionaries in both chemistry and music. Chemistry career Votoček studied at the ...

(1872–1950): Although primarily known as a chemist, Votoček studied medicine initially. He made significant contributions to organic chemistry, including work on sugars and heterocyclic compounds *

Stanislav Grof Stanislav Grof (born July 1, 1931) is a Czech-born American psychiatrist. Grof is one of the principal developers of transpersonal psychology and research into the use of non-ordinary states of consciousness for purposes of psychological hea ...

(born 1931): Czech psychiatrist and one of the founders of the field of

transpersonal psychology Transpersonal psychology, or spiritual psychology, is an area of psychology that seeks to integrate the spiritual and transcendent human experiences within the framework of modern psychology. Evolving from the humanistic psychology movement, ...

, which examines the spiritual aspects of the human mind. He is known for his early studies of

LSD Lysergic acid diethylamide, commonly known as LSD (from German ; often referred to as acid or lucy), is a semisynthetic, hallucinogenic compound derived from ergot, known for its powerful psychological effects and serotonergic activity. I ...

and its effects on the psyche.

Student associations

Within the 1. Faculty multiple student associations exist (SMC and MedSoc). They have their offices in Faust House and are responsible for helping new students get used to the university life as well as organise extracurricular activities, including Freshers Week every September. Furthermore numerous interest groups exist, such as a surgical society, which envisions the nurture of aspiring surgeons from all years by providing research opportunities, away clerkships and workshops.

Gallery

Děkanát 1.LF UK, socha Hygieiy.jpg, Statue of Hygieia in the hall of the main building Nemocnice U Apolinare.jpg, Clinic of Gynecology and Obstetrics Síň coriových.jpg, Hall of

and

, Nobel Prize–winning scientists and Charles University alumni Síň Coriových deska.jpg, Commemorative plaque on Cori Hall, a memorial to

Carl Carl may refer to: *Carl, Georgia, city in USA *Carl, West Virginia, an unincorporated community *Carl (name), includes info about the name, variations of the name, and a list of people with the name *Carl², a TV series * "Carl", an episode of tel ...

and

and to the Velvet Revolution Deska Franz Hofmeister.jpg, Commemorative plaque on the building where

Franz Hofmeister Franz Hofmeister (30 August 1850, in Prague – 26 July 1922, in Würzburg) was an early protein scientist, and is famous for his studies of salts that influence the solubility and conformational stability of proteins. In 1902, Hofmeister became t ...

conducted his scientific research Anatomický ústav 1.LF UK.jpg, Department of Anatomy Anatomický ústav 1.LF UK 2.jpg, Department of Anatomy Praha, Nové Město, fakultní nemocnice.jpg, General University Hospital in Prague

References

{{Authority control Charles University Medical schools in the Czech Republic Educational institutions established in the 14th century 1340s establishments in the Holy Roman Empire 1348 establishments in Europe 14th-century establishments in Bohemia