Rector Speech

I assure you, dear students, that we will give our utmost effort to provide you with the highest quality education for your professional and personal development at the highest level. The University of Medicine, Tirana represents a productive and innovative academic environment for health sciences, fostering the exchange of knowledge and creativity through scientific research and internationalization. Every year, you will have excellent opportunities for student exchanges in ERASMUS programs and beyond, with a wide range of foreign partner universities, as well as active participation in numerous scientific research projects.

The medical university of the future aims to become a reference center for medical studies in the region and beyond, by educating doctors, dentists, pharmacists, nurses, physiotherapists, midwives, technicians, and all health professionals, with responsibility and distinguished social representation in contributing specifically to collective health welfare.

At our university, we aim to shape a new model of the health professional; capable of integrating naturally into modern healthcare systems and contemporary hospitals, where patient care is combined with Education and Scientific Research.

A primary objective of the university remains the integration and harmonization of health professions and our study programs at all levels, through the development of a humanistic interprofessional culture, with the patient at the center as a person with an inalienable individuality.

For nine years now, the White Coat Ceremony has marked the beginning of the academic year at our university, but this is the first year that we are all together, conveying the important message that the white coat is not solely the symbol of the medical doctor; it represents a unifying and purifying symbol for all health professions. Today, at the center of medical sciences stands health, not disease; of course, the appropriate approach to this new paradigm is multidimensional, empathetic, and transversal, through multidisciplinary care provided by all healthcare professionals.

Dear academic colleagues, the major challenge that lies ahead in the coming years is digital informatization and the application of Artificial Intelligence in medical sciences and the teaching process. In a few years, we have witnessed an accelerated evolution in the development of innovative technologies and precision medicine. In our vision, we consider that the large-scale application of advanced digital technologies complements, but does not replace, the fundamental value of the human being as an inalienable individual; always at the center of every decision-making in the field of medicine.

In this approach, where advanced technology and people work together for the common good, the University of Medicine, Tirana also fulfills its ‘third mission’ as a social responsibility for the health and well-being of the community through attention to healthy lifestyle promotion and the implementation of the values of dialogue and communication, education, diversity, inclusion, and cultural exchange.

In conclusion, once again, I wish you all a successful academic year, health, success, and personal development at all levels of your studies!