Since 1944, when His Majesty King Michael I of Romania issued a Decree-Law by which the Western University of Timisoara was founded, over 15,000 physicians, more than 3,000 of which foreigners, have graduated our university.
A university lives through its students and its teaching staff and it acquires fame through its academic environment and through the results it can show the world. One of the main goals of the Faculty of Medicine is to train competent and skilled physicians. This goal implies thorough knowledge of general medicine, one of the most difficult medical specialties, combining clinical aspects with fundamental research. Starting from these premises, all the subjects studied in the Faculty of Medicine are considered equally important.
The Faculty of Medicine has the following specialisations:
- Bachelor in Medicine – 6 years, full-time attendance
- Bachelor in Nursing (Registered nurses) – 4 years, full-time attendance (Timisoara, Lugoj)
- Bachelor in Nursing for Imaging and Radiology – 3 years, full-time attendance
- Bachelor in Nursing for Balneo-physiotherapy and Recuperation – 3 years, full-time attendance
- Bachelor in Nursing for Nutrition and Dietetics – 3 years, full-time attendance
For the specialisation General Medicine, the first three years are dedicated to preclinical training, and the last three years to clinical training. The preclinical cycle involves the study of fundamental subjects: anatomy, histology, biology, biochemistry, biophysics. For the past years, preclinical training has been updated acquiring a more and more pronounced clinical character, by correlating the information from preclinical subjects with their application into medical practice, and by introducing in the curriculum subjects such as NEUROSCIENCES and FIRST AID.
The clinical cycle consists in clinical subjects with a pronounced medical and surgical character, as well as subjects of preventive medicine. The curriculum is completed with complementary subjects, such as the history of medicine, social sciences, sports, foreign languages, and Romanian for the foreign students.
The equipment of the teaching hospitals has been permanently updated, an example in this sense being the departments of cardiology, laparoscopic surgery, orthopaedic surgery, gynaecology and in-vitro fertilisation, paediatrics and urology.
One of the important developments for the Faculty of Medicine lies in the numerous international contacts it has established in the past years. Thus, the faculty’s cooperation with prestigious European universities (and not only) makes possible the implementation of short- and medium-term programmes, which contribute to definitely enhancing the quality of the training process.
Research plays a major role in the academic activity of the faculty. Focusing on the two research directions: fundamental and clinical, undergraduate, post-graduate, doctoral and post-doctoral students are encouraged to access scientific network and publish the results of their research activities in international medical journals. To familiarize undergraduate students with the requirements of scientific work and to make them understands the major importance of research in medical activity, the faculty has recently introduced in its curriculum the subject “Methodology of the Scientific Research”.