After a year's preparation, the Faculty of Medicine has been officially launched at Wrocław University of Science and Technology. “This is a historic day that opens a new and exciting chapter in the life of our university,” said Prof. Arkadiusz Wójs, Wrocław Tech’s Rector.

The decision to establish a Faculty of Medicine at our university was made in September 2022, and preparations for its opening began at that point. In December, Wrocław University of Science and Technology, the Marshal's Office of the Lower Silesian Voivodship, and eight hospitals and healthcare institutions signed cooperation agreements to that effect, and the university applied for permission to provide medical education in early January. Once it was obtained – in June – the student admissions procedure began.

“The technical disciplines that prevail at our university have always had a strong foundation in the basic sciences, and the social sciences have flourished at the university almost from the beginning. However, the launch of the Faculty of Medicine is a historic day, opening a new and exciting chapter in the life of our university,” said Prof. Arkadiusz Wójs during the celebratory event. “A year ago, I spoke enthusiastically about the vision of Wrocław Tech as a multidisciplinary European technical university, and soon afterwards the vision was included in our university’s development strategy. Thanks to the enormous commitment of many people, the trust of the academic community, the favour of the senate, the cooperation with the largest hospitals in Wrocław, and the courage and understanding of the authorities at all levels, this vision is becoming a reality today,” he added.

Poland’s groundbreakers

Wrocław University of Science and Technology has thus become the first technical university in Poland to embark on training students in medicine. According to Prof. Arkadiusz Wojs, the step is a significant moment not only for Wrocław Tech itself but also for society as a whole.

“We are opening up the opportunity for secondary school graduates to do their dream degree programmes at an excellent university, under the guidance of outstanding doctors, and with access to an enormous clinical base. We are opening the door to research and interdisciplinary projects for medical staff and our scientists. We are offering our partners a platform for cooperation and opening up opportunities for research projects and the development of their staff. Finally, we are developing a great academy worthy of Wrocław and needed by the whole of society,” stressed the Rector.

Prof. Arkadiusz Wójs acknowledged that the opening of Wrocław Tech to medicine would become a model for other Polish universities and accelerate the development of science and the higher education system in our country. “I also very much look forward to the development of collaboration and further integration of Wrocław’s academic community, and I would like to express my thanks to the Conference of Rectors of the Universities of Wrocław and Opole for their kind acceptance of our vision of development,” he added.

Broad cooperation

The medical programme will be delivered in cooperation with seven Wrocław hospitals and the Lower Silesian Medical Centre Dolmed.

“Interdisciplinarity in the area of health care is ubiquitous, and it concerns prevention, diagnosis, medical experimentation, therapy, and teaching. At the core of all medical achievements lie strict sciences: mathematics, physics, and chemistry, which are by principle geared towards a better understanding of the world,” said Prof. Wojciech Witkiewicz, Director of the Voivodship Specialist Hospital in Wrocław. “Today advances in medicine like never before are only possible thanks to the interaction between scientists hailing from different fields. The best example is the long-standing cooperation between our hospital and Wrocław University of Science and Technology, which has resulted in over 200 joint papers published, as well as the awarding of doctoral degrees to nearly 20 people and post-doctoral degrees to four.”

Prof. Wojciech Witkiewicz pointed out that the establishment of the Faculty of Medicine at a technical university and the attempt to integrate medicine and engineering in the training of doctors is undoubtedly an important change in the approach to the traditional model of education.

“In light of the current problems in the health service system, we all have high hopes that this new training proposal from Wrocław University of Science and Technology will ensure better understanding and easier cooperation between engineers and doctors, as well as enable better use of medical apparatus and equipment for the treatment of patients. We expect that more interdisciplinary training of doctors will allow medics and engineers to better know and understand the world of the patient and improve the efficiency of patient treatment, which is, after all, the essence of medical development and progress,” the doctor stressed.

Thanks to the cooperation with hospitals, medical students will have practical classes, the so-called bedside hours, already in the first year of their study, which will exceed the minimum required by the regulation of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education (as many as 249 clinical classes over the entire course of study).

It is about more than teaching

The new faculty will have its seat in building C-7 and C-20, which is part of the historic complex of the former hospital on Hoene-Wroński Street. Over 40 rooms, including specialised laboratories and workrooms, await staff and students there. These include a Medical Simulation Centre, an imaging diagnostics laboratory, a virtual microscopy laboratory, a biophysics laboratory, and a virtual dissection room.

“The Faculty of Medicine is about more than education. It’s also a scientific activity because we all know how medicine has become dependent on technology. Thanks to the faculty's close collaboration with the partner hospitals, new areas of research are opening up, with all of us benefiting,” said Prof. Tadeusz Więckowski, the Rector’s Plenipotentiary for the establishment of the Faculty of Medicine at Wrocław Tech. “All of this happened in one year. Is this possible anywhere else? P have my doubts, but Wrocław Tech is a special university as this is where dreams come true,” he added.

The Faculty of Medicine currently employs about 60 new academic teachers, including over 10 professors and over 20 professors of the university. They make up the staff of the first six departments, with a cardiologist, Professor of the University Dariusz Jagielski, MD, PhD acting as Dean. The Faculty Council, the Discipline Council, and the Clinical Affairs Council will soon be established, and 60 students will start their medical courses on October 1.

“We start with a modest 60 students, but our basic parameter will be quality, not quantity. We want to show our students the wonderful world of medicine and the fascinating world of cutting-edge technology, without which it’s difficult to imagine modern medicine,” stressed Prof. Dariusz Jagielski. “We hope the students coming here to be smart, hungry for medical knowledge, brave and sometimes maybe even uncompromising when it comes to inventing various new technologies or ways of diagnosis and treatment,” he added.

The final part of the ceremony was dedicated to the unveiling the faculty plaque, which was hung at the entrance to building C-20.