On June 17, 1969, the Parliament of Kosovo passed the law for the Establishment of the Faculty of Medicine, within University of Prishtina (UP) (Official Gazette no. 20/69). On November 7, 1973, a collaboration between Prishtina Hospital and the Faculty of Medicine (FM) was established and was registered at the Commercial Court of the District of Prishtina. Since then, the Faculty of Medicine operates as an academic unit and educational activities are carried out at the following Institutions: University Clinical Center, University Dentistry Clinical Center, National Institute of Public Health, Preclinical Institutes, National Center for Blood Transfusion, Institute for Occupational Medicine, Center for Development of Family Medicine and Kosovo Agency for Medical Products.

In terms of postgraduate studies, during the ’80s, the Masters Study Programs, in General Medicine and Dentistry had been established. The academic degree “Master of Science” (Mr. Sc.) was obtained with the defense of Master’s Degree Thesis. Subsequently, the academic degree of “Doctor of Science” (Dr. Sc.) could be obtained with the defense of the Doctoral Thesis.

Postgraduate studies according to the Bologna system, in the Faculty of Medicine first started with the Master’s Program in Health Management in 2003. Successively, Ph.D. study program started in 2007. Currently, The Medical Faculty offers the following Ph.D. programs: Preclinical Medicine; Clinical Medicine; Dentistry; Experimental Biomedicine; Public Health.

The Clinical Medicine program is based on interdisciplinary approach. As such, the program focuses on specific research and enables candidates to undertake in-depth scientific research work on their own, but furthermore to get professional skills and qualifications related to their professions. This includes targeted training of Ph.D. candidates in entrepreneurship and knowledge transfer between university and professional environment and vice versa – for the benefit of the society as a whole – especially with regard to the economic and social impact of the candidates’ work.

The objectives of the Ph.D. program in “Clinical medicine” are:

• Strengthening research capacities, as well as improvement of internationalization and mobility aspects within the Ph.D. cycle;
• Addressing the urgent need to build expertise in the field of Clinical medicine in Kosovo;
• Development, accreditation and continuation of the PhD program Clinical medicine and implementation of interdisciplinary team work at the UP in line with Bologna requirements and recent trends;
• Achievement of general knowledge base on Ph.D. program development and implementation through capacity and institution building measures.

The curricula is designed in accordance with University of Prishtina regulation for PhD studies, as well as international standards. It consist of obligatory and elective courses tailored for the needs of each candidate’s field of professional interest. The majority of semester loads are related to PhD thesis preparation and accomplishing the obligations towards the finalization of PhD program, such as publication of parts of the thesis work, abstract presentations, mentor reports, PhD thesis public defense.

After successfully completing our program, the candidates will be able to:

• Develop skills for independent scientific work in biomedical and clinical practice
• Gain the ability to plan, design, implement and adapt a research project with scientific integrity
• Gain the ability for critical analysis, evaluation and synthesis of new and complex ideas
• Gain the ability to apply research by symbiosis of research and practical work
• Gain the ability to communicate in professional manner with the scientific community and society in general about basic questions of science
• Gain knowledge on numerous biomedical methods and their application in medical research and practice
• Achieve skills to generate results from original research and to publish these results in renowned scientific journals