The Medizinische Universität Innsbruck (Medical University of Innsbruck) has roots that go back long before the foundations of the establishment were laid.
It began as one of the first hospitals in the nearby silver-mining city of Schwaz in 1307, then a medical faculty was added to the initial university, which was set up by Emperor Leopold I in 1669.
It was one of the four faculties of the Leopold-Franzens-Universitat Innsbruck (philosophy was established in 1669, law in 1670, theology in 1670 and medicine in 1674) but gained its independence in 2004.
It is now one of the largest educational facilities for doctors and medical researchers in western Austria. Divided into medical theory, clinical practice and further service facilities, the main objective is to provide top quality teaching and training, world-class research and continuous developments in top-tier medicine.
Its speciality research areas are in oncology, neurosciences, infectiology, immunology and transplant and as an interface with genetics, epigenetics and genomics.
There are around 3,000 students, many of whom are from Tyrol, South Tyrol and the Province of Vorarlberg - and 2,000 employees. The Medizinische Universität Innsbruck's research centres are centred around the university hospitals.
In 1984, the faculty of medicine unveiled a plaque to commemorate medical student Christoph Probst, a member of the White Rose student resistance movement and a square was renamed Chistoph-Probst-Platz in 1994.
There is also a Holocaust memorial sculpture on campus to remember the professors, doctors and students who were marginalised and displaced in March 1938.
