The history of Lviv Medical University goes back to 1661, when on 20 January the
Jesuit Collegium in Lviv by the privilege of Polish King
John II Casimir acquired the status of academy. It consisted of four departments and was awarded the title of the
university. However, until the break-up of the university in 1773, the full-blown medical department was not established. On 16 November 1784, according to the privilege of the Austrian emperor
Joseph II, signed on 21 October 1784, Lviv University was revived with four faculties: theology, philosophy, law and medicine. Since then Danylo Halytsky Lviv National Medical University started counting its age.
Until 1918 On January 20, 1661, King
John II Casimir Vasa granted the privilege transforming the Jesuit College into an Academy with four faculties. There was no medical faculty at that time and this condition lasted until the closing of the university by the Austrian authorities in 1773. Emperor
Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor by a privilege of October 21, 1784 agreed to resume the university's activity, which took place November 16, 1784. The faculties of law, theology, philosophy and medicine, the existence of a medical college in Lviv has been dated since. In 1891, the Austro-Hungarian government decided to establish an independent medical faculty thanks to the intercession of the governor of
Galicia (Eastern Europe),
Count Kasimir Felix Badeni a medical faculty was established. In the same year, the city authorities and governorship allocated the university the area at ul. Piekarska 52 for the construction of a new faculty. The author of the project was
Józef Braunseis, under whose leadership the main building of descriptive anatomy and physiology, forensic medicine, pathology, as well as chemistry and pharmacology was created in four years. By 1898, new facilities were erected to house the departments of obstetrics and gynecology, internal medicine, dermatology and venereology, and otolaryngology. In March 1900, the first sixteen graduates with the title of doctor, fourteen Poles and two Ukrainians graduated from the university. At the beginning of the 20th century many lecturers were recruited from universities with longer traditions and reputation, i.e. the
Jagiellonian University,
Viennaand in
Heidelberg.
Second Polish Republic After the beginning of the 1918 academic year, education was discontinued, staff and students fought to
Battle of Lemberg (1918). The next academic year was interrupted due to the
Polish–Soviet War. The university's activity was activated on March 15, 1920, within two years the Faculty of Medicine encompassed twenty-one departments, and nineteen professors were among the academic staff. In 1929 the university structure was reorganized, the Pharmaceutical Department was established at that time. Before the outbreak of
World War II, the Faculty of Medicine consisted of twenty-four departments and clinics, and thirteen full professors, five associate professors and thirty-three associate professors worked among the scientific staff. World-renowned scholars lectured at the medical faculty, including
Henryk Kadyi, Wladyslaw Szymonowicz, John Prussia,
Adolf Beck (physiologist), Antoni Mars,
Ludwik Rydygier,
Antoni Cieszyński, Roman Rencki,
Jakub Karol Parnas,
Rudolf Weigl, Antoni Władysław Gluziński,
Stanisław Budzyński,
Edmund Biernacki, Leon Popielski, Włodzimierz Sieradzki, Hilary Schramm, Emanuel Machek,
Antoni Jurasz, Henryk Halban, Zdzisław Steusing, Napoleon Gąsiorowski, Witold Ziembicki, Jan Grek, Tadeusz Ostrowski,
Adam Gruca, Jan Lenartowicz, Adam Bednarski, Kazimierz Bocheński, Franciszek Groër, Eugeniusz Artwiński, Teofil Zalewski, Józef Antoni Markowski, Bolesław Jałowy, Mieczysław Wierzuchowski, Włodzimierz Koskowski, Marian Franke, Witold Nowicki (lekarz). In the 1938/1939 academic year various Departments in the Medical School were: • Internal diseases; • Surgery; • Orthopedics; • Dermatology; • Ophthalmology; • Obstetrics; • Gynecology; • Pediatrics; • Nervous diseases; • Psychiatry; • Otolaryngology; • Dentistry; • Histology; • Embryology; • Physiology; • Pharmacology; • Pathology; • Anatomy; • Forensic medicine; • Hygiene; • Medical microbiology; • History of medicine; • General biology; • Medical chemistry.
Secret Ukrainian University After the end of the Polish-Bolshevik war by the decision of the
Ministry of Religious Affairs and Public Education (Poland), the
University of Lviv became a university with only Polish as the language of instruction, professors and lecturers of Ukrainian origin were removed from the university. This caused a protest and the establishment of underground Ukrainian higher education, under which a secret Ukrainian Technical College and the Ukrainian University were established, in which the medical faculty operated in the years 1921–1925. There were ten departments where one hundred and eighty-five students studied. The group of lecturers included, among others
Marian Panchyshyn, Iwan Kuroweć, Maksym Muzyka,
Stefan Baley, and Ołeksandr Barwinski. Due to the lack of facilities and the possibility of conducting laboratory and clinical exercises after completing the third year, students continued to study abroad.
World War II After entering the city of the
Red Army in autumn 1939, the Soviet authorities reorganized higher education to adapt it to the model in force in the USSR. The Faculty of Medicine was separated from the structures of the
University of Lviv and became an independent university called the State Medical Institute. Oleksandr Makarczenko became the rector, the university ran two faculties - health care and pharmaceutical. In the same year, a medical science library was founded. After the arrival of German troops in Lviv at the end of June 1941, the extermination of the Polish intelligentsia began, at the beginning of July the
Massacre of Lwów professors took place in the Wuleckie Hillsin the southern part of the city. Tadeusz Ostrowski, Władysław Dobrzaniecki, Stanisław Progulski, Jan Grek, Roman Rencki, Włodzimierz Sieradzki, Adam Sołowij, Stanisław Mączewski, Witold Nowicki, Antoni Cieszyński and Jerzy Grzędzielski were among the group shot. Bolesław Jałowy, Andrij Łastowećkyj and Adolf Beck also died during the Nazi occupation.. On May 20, 1942, the Nazis organized vocational medical courses at the premises of the Medical Institute bearing the official name of the State Vocational Medical and Nature Courses (Staatliche Medizinisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Fachkurse) in Lviv, their scope corresponded to the German program of higher medical education. They were called medical and preventive vocational courses, Marian Panczyszyn and Roman Osinczuk were involved in their organization.
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic After re-entering the city of Russians, the activity of the State Medical Institute was restored. In 1961 a department for training foreigners was established, the number of which increased steadily, yet the language of instruction was Russian. Beginning from 1961 University provides education for foreign citizens. During 50 years over 2,5 thousand doctors and pharmacists – foreigners have got education here and have been working successfully as doctors and pharmacists in many countries of the world. Education is provided in Ukrainian, Russian Language, and since 1997 the teaching of foreign students in English has been launched and is rapidly developing. Now 70% of University foreign students study in English Medium Program. ==Academics==