History of the Faculty

The year 2019 marked 40 years of study programmes in the field of biomedicine and health being conducted in Osijek. The Faculty of Medicine Osijek celebrated its 20^th anniversary as a constituent of the University of Josip Juraj Strossmayer in Osijek. The year 2017 will be remembered as the year when the first faculty in the 21^st century was founded in the region of Slavonia and Baranja and Western Syrmia and that was the Faculty of Dental Medicine and Health Osijek. The Faculty of Dental Medicine and Health Osijek was founded upon decision of the senate of the University on 25^th April 2017; therefore today the University of J. J. Strossmayer in Osijek has two faculties in the field of biomedicine and health which conduct study programmes on undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate level. 

40 years of tradition

Today we have two faculties which is a result stemming from the seventies. At the end of the seventies of the past century indicators showed that the state of health care in Slavonia and Baranja was alarming in comparison to other regions and to the Socialist Republic of Croatia as a whole.  The number of doctors for 10000 inhabitants of Slavonia and Baranja was 10.3, and in the city municipalities in Zagreb it was 36.8, and for the whole Socialist Republic of Croatia it was 16.2. Slavonia and Baranja and Dalmatia (14.2) were below the Republic’s average. The idea to establish the Study programme of Medicine was initiated by the doctors of the General Hospital Osijek lead by Martin Dičić and Ivan Čandrlić. It was supported by the University of Osijek then, especially by the rector Professor Petar Anić, PhD and the president of the university Assembly Professor Ljubomir Baban, PhD and the institutional activities which were preconditions for a successful launch of the Study programme of Medicine in Osijek. 

According to the before mentioned, another document was compiled with the entire “Depiction of indicators of the health care state and medical staff in Slavonia and Baranja”. Afterwards an analysis was carried out in the former Institute for planning, economics and development of associated labour of Slavonia and Baranja for the purposes of the former Community of municipalities Osijek. 

On 11^th April 1979 the rector Prof. Petar Anić, PhD turned to the Faculty of Medicine of the University in Zagreb for help to establish the Study programme of Medicine in Osijek. At that time the dean of the Faculty of Medicine of the University in Zagreb was Prof. Mladen Sekso, PhD, and the vice deans Mladen Belicza, Boško Barac, Predrag Keros, Milan Škrbić and Dunja Bertić. The mentioned management of the Faculty of Medicine in Zagreb supported the idea to found a dislocated study programme of medicine in Osijek, but also in Split and showed noble advocacy for a polycentric development of the SR Croatia. The vice deans in charge of the dislocated study programme of medicine in Osijek were Prof. Predrag Keros, PhD and Prof. Matko Marušić, PhD afterwards. 

The Faculty of Medicine of the University in Zagreb was approved by Decision of the State Secretariat for Education, Culture and Sport of the SR Croatia to organise the dislocated study programme of medicine in Osijek starting on 30^th August 1979. The first generation of the Study programme of Medicine was enrolled in the academic year 1979/1980. The inauguration of the dislocated study programme of medicine in Osijek was on 28^th September 1979 at the former Faculty of Pedagogy in Osijek. 

The Republic’s Committee for Education, Culture, Sport and Technical Culture of the SR Croatia approved on 6^th October 1980 the conduction of the dislocated Study programme of Medicine from the Faculty of Medicine of the University in Zagreb to continue in Osijek and Split. Classes of the dislocated Study programme in Osijek were held at the Faculty of Law, at the Faculty of Pedagogy, at the Rectorate of the University, at the High School Centre Ruđer Bošković and in the General Hospital Osijek as well as in the Medical centre Osijek. The Scientific unit of the General Hospital Osijek was founded on 18^th December 1980 with its founder and head from 1980 till 2004 being Prof. Antun Tucak, PhD. By establishing the Scientific unit, which became the core of scientific work and of doctors’ education and training in Slavonia and Baranja, the foundation for scientific-research activities was laid. The Scientific unit became a member of the University in Osijek on 24^th February 1981 and started publishing a scientific-expert journal Medicinski vjesnik (“Medical Post”) once every three months, which was the successor of Glasilo za liječnike bolnice (“News for hospital doctors”) – edited by Prof. Branko Milošević,, PhD from 1969 till 1981, and the editing was taken over by Prof. Antun Tucak, PhD who was editor from 1982 till 2012. The unified library of the General Hospital Osijek was opened on 20^th December 1984 and its first head was Antun Šimunić, MSc. Thanks to the dean of the Faculty of Medicine of the University in Zagreb Prof. Nijaz Hadžić, PhD on the 29^th November 1986 the Department of Internal Medicine of the General Hospital Osijek became the first Clinic for Internal Medicine of the Faculty of Medicine of the University in Zagreb, of the General Hospital Osijek and its first head was Prof. Ivan Čandrlić, PhD. As time passed by the local authorities did not ensure spaces for adequate lecture rooms and laboratories where students and teachers would have satisfying conditions to conduct classes. The Faculty of Medicine of the University in Zagreb therefore decided to terminate the study programme if adequate conditions were not created within a year (a new building for the Study programme of Medicine). The local authorities promised to take care of the space issues but did not fulfil them.

Founding society

Given the circumstances the teaching assistant Aleksandar Včev and the student Marinko Žulj gathered a group of likeminded individuals to form an Initiative board to establish the Founding society to develop the study programme of medicine. The founders of this society were: Gordana Ajduković, Dubravko Božić, Ivan Čandrlić, Martin Dičić, Frano Dragun, Damir Lenz, Nikola Mandić, Predrag Novaković, Antun Šimunić, Antun Tucak, Aleksandar Včev and Marinko Žulj. On 2^nd December 1988 at noon in the meeting hall of the Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics of the General Hospital Osijek an Assembly of the Founding society to develop the study programme of medicine in Osijek was held. The executive board was chosen at that Assembly: Gordana Ajduković, Dane Babić, Dubravko Božić, Ivan Čandrlić, Martin Dičić, Frano Dragun, Zvonko Erak, Dušan Gunjević, Josip Harangozo, Željko Huber, Blagoja Kondža, Davor Lamza, Nikola Mandić, Predrag Novaković, Branko Runje, Antun Šimunić, Vladimir Tomić, Antun Tucak, Aleksandar Včev, Matko Vuković and Marinko Žulj.

Doctor Dubravko Božić, who was the director of the General Hospital Osijek, was elected as the president of the Society, doctor Gordana Ajduković, who was the deputy mayor, as vice president of the Society, and as secretaries Aleksandar Včev and Marinko Žulj.

The Board for autonomous society control consisted of: Vjekoslav Biro, Đuro Ćuti, Srećko Jelinić, Barbara Kalinić and Branimir Zelenka. Đuro Ćuti was elected president of the Board for autonomous society control; Damir Lenz and Dubravko Paulini were elected treasurers of the Society. The activists of the Society undertook numerous actions to raise funds for the construction of the building for basic medical sciences: social activities, concerts, they went to companies in the region and other activities. Since there was no fallout shelter on the hospital premises (at that time every hospital was supposed to have one according to the law), the hospital medical director, at the same time president of the Founding society to develop the study programme of medicine Dubravko Božić, MD made a big and critical decision; he decided to have the fallout shelter built within the new object for the Study programme of Medicine. 

Construction on the building

The entire project and design planning was ordered from the engineering firm ETZ in Osijek that designed the object for scientific research and the Study programme of Medicine in Osijek, where construction started in June 1989. The project planning went well; the financial part for the first phase of the construction of the new building was ensured. The first phase consisted of building the fallout shelter which was actually the foundation of the building for scientific research and the Study programme of Medicine in Osijek, later called building for basic medical sciences. The allocated funds were sufficient for construction of the fallout shelter, but also for the entire structure of the new building including the roofing. This fulfilled all the conditions set by the Faculty of Medicine of the University in Zagreb and that were vital to continue classes at the dislocated Study programme of Medicine in Osijek. Nevertheless, new circumstances arose that additionally slowed down and raised the cost of construction of the building for basic medical sciences. Those were the excavations, scanning and conservation of archaeological finds since the whole Lower Town was practically built on Celtic and Roman settlements, especially on the Roman town Mursa. The Board of the Society was able to find a solution together with the Department of conservation in charge of work at the archaeological finds of the future building. After overcoming this obstacle, in 1990 construction on the new building finally started. Until the beginning of the Croatian War of Independence the fallout shelter was built, as well as the building’s structure and roof. During the War the shelter was used to put up patients of the General Hospital and since 5^th October 1992 of the Clinical Hospital Osijek. 

The Council of the Faculty of Medicine of the University in Zagreb decided to form a task force for the dislocated Study programme of Medicine in Osijek. Based on the Statute of the Faculty of Medicine of the University in Zagreb and suggested by the scientific-teaching council, Ass. Prof. Martin Dičić, PhD was appointed head of the dislocated Study programme of Medicine in Osijek, who stayed at that function from 1979 till 1988. From 1988 till 1993 Prof. Ivan Čandrlić, PhD was the head and from 1993 till 1996 Prof. Ante Ivandić, PhD was the head of the Study programme. From 1996 until the Faculty of Medicine Osijek was established and independent as a constituent of the University of J. J. Strossmayer in Osijek the leading figure was Prof. Antun Tucak, PhD. The Managing Council of the University in Osijek founded in 1994 a Board for the crossover of the dislocated Study programme of Medicine into the Faculty of Medicine Osijek of the University of J. J. Strossmayer in Osijek, whose task was to have the building for fundamental biosciences finished within the Clinical Hospital Osijek. Prof. Radoslav Galić, PhD, president of the Managing Council of the CH Osijek, suggested granting the building to the University of J. J. Strossmayer in Osijek in 1995. An Agreement on construction completion was signed between the City of Osijek, the Osijek-Baranja County and the Ministry of Science of the Republic of Croatia. The establishment of the Faculty of Medicine Osijek as a part the University in Osijek was supported by the vice president of the Croatian Government and the minister of science, technology and sport at that time – Prof. Ivica Kostović, PhD, as well as by the Osijek rector Prof. Gordana Kralik, PhD, the vice rector Prof. Radoslav Galić, PhD and the dean of the Faculty of Medicine of the University in Zagreb Prof. Niko Zural, PhD. 

The inauguration of the Faculty of Medicine Osijek of the University of Josip Juraj Strossmayer in Osijek was on 22^nd September 1998 with the archbishop of Đakovo and Osijek mons. Marin Srakić blessing it. 

The first meeting of the Faculty Council of the Faculty of Medicine Osijek was held on 15^th June 1998 when heads of departments were appointed: for anatomy Prof. Vasilije Nikolić, PhD, for medical physics and biophysics Prof. Jasminka Brnjas Kraljević, PhD, for chemistry, biochemistry and clinical chemistry Ass. Prof. Gordan Lauc, PhD, for medical biology Prof. Draško Šerman, PhD, for histology and embryology Prof. Ljiljana Knežević Kostović, PhD, for physiology and immunology Prof. Branko Vitale, PhD, for pharmacology Ass. Prof. Ante Tvrdeić, PhD, for pathology Ass. Prof. Branko Dmitrović, PhD, for forensic medicine Ass. Prof. Mladen Marcikić, PhD, for paediatrics Prof. Duško Mardešić, PhD, for dermatovenerology Prof. Vladimira Barišić Druško, PhD, for general clinical oncology Prof. Zdenko Krajina, PhD, for radiology Prof. Slavko Šimunić, PhD, for gynaecology and obstetrics Prof. Ivan Kuvačić, PhD, for infectious diseases Prof. Ivan Soldo, PhD, for internal medicine Prof. Ante Ivandić, PhD, for pathophysiology and nuclear medicine Ass. Prof. Ivan Karner, PhD, for surgery and war surgery Prof. Janko Hančević, PhD, for urology Prof. Antun Tucak, PhD, for ophthalmology Prof. Tihomir Ćurković, PhD, for orthopaedics and physical medicine with general rehabilitation Prof. Savo Jovanović, PhD, for otorhinolaringology with audiology and phoniatrics and maxillofacial surgery with dentistry Ass. Prof. Davorin Đanić, PhD, for neurology with neuropathology Prof. Boško Barac, PhD, for neurosurgery Prof. Đuro Vranković, PhD, for psychiatry with medical psychology Prof. Nikola Mandić, PhD, for family medicine and primary health care and organisation of health care and health economics Ass. Prof. Zdravko Ebling, PhD, for anaesthesiology and reanimatology Ass. Prof. Katarina Zdravčević Šakić, PhD, for health ecology, for epidemiology, introduction into medicine and social medicine Ass. Prof. Dinko Puntarić, PhD, for medical statistics and information technology Prof. Radoslav Galić, PhD, for medical sociology Sanja Babić, MSc, for history of medicine Prof. Biserka Belicza, PhD, for microbiology, virology and parasitology Ass. Prof. Jasmina Vraneš, PhD.

The first dean was Prof. Antun Tucak, PhD from 1998 till 2003. From 2003 till 2005 the dean was Prof. Krešimir Glavina, PhD. Prof. Pavo Filaković, PhD was the dean from 2005 till 2009 and from 2009 till 2017 the dean was Prof. Aleksandar Včev, PhD. Since 2017 the dean has been Prof. Jure Mirat, PhD. 

Besides the building of the Fundamental biomedical sciences with an area size of 4500 m², the Faculty of Medicine Osijek owns the Vivarij building with an area size of 300 m². In 2010 the building at the address Cara Hadrijana 10e was renovated and it was granted to the Faculty of Dental Medicine and Health Osijek. The Senate of the University in Osijek decided on 7^th December 2000 to organise and conduct the Postgraduate scientific university study programme of Biomedicine and health (master and doctoral) according to the valid Act on Higher Education Institutions at that time. Pursuant to the amendments in the Act on Scientific Activity and Higher Education and according to the recommendations of the Rector Assembly the Faculty of Medicine Osijek prepared a Postgraduate university (doctoral) study programme of Biomedicine and health that passed the evaluation of the National Council for Higher Education; the study programme therefore received the permit from the Ministry of Science, Education and sport on 14^th February 2007. The Faculty of Medicine Osijek significantly contributed to the process of standardising the doctoral study programme of Biomedicine and health. The representatives of the faculty actively participated in conferences in Zagreb, where the topic was how to harmonise doctoral study programmes (European Conference on Harmonisation of PhD Programs in Medicine and Health Sciences, Zagreb 2004 and 2005). The Faculty of Medicine Osijek is a member of the European association of study programmes of biomedicine and health ORPHEUS (Organisation for PhD Education in Biomedicine and Health Sciences in the European System). It was an active participant of the third ORPHEUS 2007 conference held in Helsinki which resulted in the document known as “Helsinki Consensus Statement” on organisation of doctoral study programmes in a clinical environment, where the importance of research in clinical medicine was stressed. The Undergraduate professional study programme of Nursing was conducted from 2003 till 2010. The Senate of the University of J. J. Strossmayer in Osijek decided to replace the professional study programme of nursing with the Undergraduate and Graduate university study programme of Nursing, which is valid since 1st February 2010 and has been conducted since the academic year 2010/2011. The Undergraduate and Graduate university study programme of Medical laboratory diagnostics has also been conducted since the academic year 2010/2011 and is the first of its kind in the Republic of Croatia. 

Since the academic year 2015/2016 the undergraduate university study programmes of Physiotherapy and Dental hygiene are conducted. The undergraduate university study programme Dental hygiene was the first of its kind in the Republic of Croatia.

The Faculty conducts the following postgraduate specialist study programmes:

Postgraduate specialist study programme: Clinical epidemiology

Postgraduate specialist study programme: Ultrasound in cardiology

Postgraduate specialist study programme: Anaesthesiology and reanimatology

Postgraduate specialist study programme: General internal medicine

Postgraduate specialist study programme: Ophthalmology and optometry 

Postgraduate specialist study programme: Psychiatry 

Postgraduate specialist study programme: Neurology

Since the academic year 2016/2017 the integrated university study programme of Dental medicine is conducted. 

Establishing the postgraduate doctoral study programme played a particularly significant role in the development of the Faculty and staff independence, which allowed a bigger number of domestic doctors to focus on scientific-research work and a scientific-teaching career. Therefore, a bigger number of departments in the Clinical Hospital Osijek acquired the status clinic which led in 2009 to the crossover from Clinical Hospital into Clinical Hospital Centre Osijek; fourth in line after the CHC Zagreb, Rijeka and Split. 

The Faculty of Dental Medicine and Health today

The Senate of the University of J.J. Strossmayer in Osijek decided on the 25^th April 2017 to make some structural changes within the Faculty of Medicine Osijek which resulted in two institutions: The Faculty of Medicine Osijek and the Faculty for Dental Medicine and Health in Osijek. The Faculty of Medicine Osijek kept the integrated undergraduate university study programme and the graduate study programme of Medicine and undergraduate university study programme and the graduate study programme of Medical Laboratory Diagnostics, as well as the doctoral study programmes and a part of the postgraduate specialist study programmes. The Faculty for Dental Medicine and Health in Osijek conducts classes for the integrated undergraduate university study programme and the graduate study programme of Dental Medicine, for the undergraduate university study programme of Nursing and Physiotherapy, as well as the postgraduate specialist study programmes of Neurology, Psychiatry and Ophthalmology with optometry (in collaboration with the Faculty of Medicine Osijek). This way the development of the listed study programmes in the field of biomedicine and health is ensured. The new Faculty for Dental Medicine and Health Osijek was allocated a building from the University on the address Cara Hadrijana 10E. The minister Goran Marić from the Ministry of State Property gave the University another building on the address Crkvena 21 to be used for classes at the Faculty for Dental Medicine and Health Osijek. 

Since 2016 the classes for the undergraduate university study programme and the graduate study programme of Physiotherapy have been held in the City of Orahovica in the Virovitica-Podravina County. The City of Orahovica bought the building of a former elementary school and partially renovated it (the renovation of the whole building is ongoing) and put it at the disposal of the Faculty to conduct these two study programmes. 

The Undergraduate study programme of Physiotherapy began in 2015 in Osijek; nevertheless, according to recommendations of the Croatian Employment Service and the Town of Vukovar, where the study programme of Physiotherapy is conducted at the College of Applied Sciences “Lavoslav Ružička” in Vukovar, today this study programme is conducted only in Orahovica. The Faculty tries to implement the actual demands of the labour market into its work; since it did not enrol the study programme in the Osijek-Baranja County due to the recommendations, the programme still exists in Orahovica since the Virovitica-Podravina County and nearby counties still lack human resources in that field. Upon the decision of the City council of Orahovica the Kurija Mihalović building was gifted to the Faculty, which needs to establish a Centre for prevention, diagnostics, therapy and rehabilitation of patients of cardiovascular diseases, and it would be the teaching base of the Faculty. In Nova Gradiška the Faculty conducts an undergraduate university study programme of Nursing, and in Slavonski Brod it delivers a graduate university study programme of Nursing. By doing so, the Faculty has created a solution for real labour market demands in all five Slavonian counties. Since 2019 the Faculty participates in the organisation of the interdisciplinary postgraduate university doctoral study programme of Molecular Bioscience. 

In 2019 we celebrated 40 years of study programmes in the field of biomedicine and health in Osijek. The Faculty of Medicine Osijek marked its 20^th anniversary as a constituent within the University of Josip Juraj Strossmayer in Osijek in 2018.  The year 2017 will be remembered as the year when the first faculty in the 21^st century was founded in the region of Slavonia and Baranja and Western Syrmia and that was the Faculty of Dental Medicine and Health Osijek. The Faculty of Dental Medicine and Health Osijek was founded upon decision of the senate of the University on 25^th April 2017; therefore today the University of J. J. Strossmayer in Osijek has two faculties in the field of biomedicine and health which conduct study programmes on undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate level. 

In memoriam

IN MEMORY OF

our dear professor, colleague and associate Prof. Radivoje Radić, PhD. 

On 14^th March 2018 at only 49 years old our dear professor, vice dean for science and postgraduate studies at the Faculty of Dental Medicine and Health Osijek passed away. 

Professor Radić has forever left an indelible mark in our hearts and our memories as a humble, warm and particularly good-willed person. We are so thankful to him for everything, especially for unselfish sharing of his knowledge and experience with associates and numerous generations of students. 

Faculty of Dental Medicine and Health Osijek