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, and 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 around 10,000 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 about 6% of the health care needs of the country’s population.

With a quarter of a million of books, 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. Of its 3000 clinical beds, 75% take part in the regional medical care and some special outpatients' departments also supply the teaching hospitals with patients needed for the training.