Faculty of Public Health

Faculty profile

The Faculty of Public Health was established as a part of the Slovak Medical University by Act No. 401/2002 Coll. on the establishment of the Slovak Medical University  and on the amendment of Act No. 131/2002 Coll. on Higher Education and on the amendment of certain Acts No. 209/2002 Coll. with effect from 1 September 2002, following the tradition of the Faculty of Public Health, which was established in 1991 as a part of the Slovak Postgraduate Academy of Medicine.


The Faculty has accredited bachelor, master and doctoral study programmes in Public Health and also several specialisation study programmes for the health professions of doctor and public health worker. The Faculty has been granted the right to conduct habilitation and appointment procedures in the field of Public Health.


The mission of the Faculty is to create conditions for the development of public health in Slovakia both in the theoretical field and in its practical application. This mission is implemented through

    education and training of public health professionals,
    research,
    service to society.

The aim of education and training is to prepare professionals capable of solving problems of protection and promotion of public health in local, regional, national and international dimensions. In its program, the Faculty combines teaching, research, and service to society and shapes the personality of the university graduate to be able to fulfill current and prospective public health roles.


To accomplish this mission, the Faculty utilizes collaborations with foreign universities, research institutes, and recognized experts in Europe and overseas, using modern communication technologies and striking a balance between teaching, research, and service to the community.


As a multidisciplinary field, Public Health uses the participation of experts from medical, biological, environmental, natural science and engineering disciplines. It is a priority of the PHE to integrate this multidisciplinary representation into teaching and research programs in order to achieve the goals of the department.


Health protection and promotion, prevention, epidemiology and health management are the priorities of the Faculty of Public Health. In research, the priority is environmental health and the understanding of causal links between environmental factors and human health, mechanisms of their effects, tools to prevent health damage and promote human health. The Faculty also seeks both teaching and scholarly elaboration of ways  on how to influence health policy and how to manage these processes. Based on these priorities, the Faculty focuses on prevention of non-infectious and infectious diseases, protection and promotion of health, adding years to life /reduce premature deaths/, adding health to life /full use of people's health potential/adding health to life /reduce morbidity, reduce the consequences of diseases/, improving quality of life /life without disease, without disability/, reducing incapacity for work, positively influencing the determinants of health, improving the health status of the population, educating public health managers, disseminating, shaping knowledge, attitudes and habits aimed at protecting, promoting and developing the health of the individual and of society.


Public Health is the science and art of protecting and improving the health of a community with the help of health education, health promotion, research, and disease prevention strategies. It is now widely accepted that it will be essential for the future to place emphasis on disease prevention in all areas of society. Prevention based on the professionalism of its promoters. The Faculty of Public Health of the SMU strives to educate such professionals.

Admission procedure

Accommodation and boarding