2020: The Faculty is celebrating its 8th centennial!
In 2020, our Faculty will celebrate its 800th anniversary! To mark this 8th centennial, we have put together a program featuring more than 34 events throughout the year. These events are dedicated to the local, national, and international medical, scientific, and academic communities, as well as to the general public in Montpellier. Here’s a look back at the program announced on Thursday, December 19, at a press conference.
A little history…
Founded on August 17, 1220 , our Faculty— formerly known as the “University of Medicine –Universitas Medicorum” —was established in Montpellier after Cardinal Conrad of Urach, the apostolic legate of Pope Honorius III, granted it its first charter. These statutes enabled the various medical schools in Montpellier to unite into a single community. This facilitated exchanges between the different medical traditions—Jewish, Arab, and Christian—that coexisted in Montpellier, which at the time stood at the crossroads of Eastern and Western civilizations.
The medical university then flourished for eight centuries, guided by a unique academic spirit: humanism, rooted in the teachings of Hippocrates.
“Hippocrates envisioned a form of medicine that engages with the sciences, philosophy, religions, climate, and the environment—in other words, a form of medicine that is a science of humanity. This enduring tradition is a distinctive feature of the Montpellier Faculty.” – Prof. Thierry Lavabre-Bertrand, Vice Dean
And today…?
While our Faculty is the oldest still in operation in the world, it is nonetheless one of the most modern. This is evidenced by the 2017 opening of our new Arnaud de Villeneuve Health Campus. Equipped with the latest simulation-based teaching technologies, it allows our students to practice while adhering to the key principle of “never try it on a patient for the first time.”
But these technologies have in no way diminished the values that our Faculty has upheld for eight centuries. Medical humanism thus remains a central focus of our teaching, leading us to develop—for the first time in France— workshops dedicated to the patient-caregiver relationship.
Events Throughout 2020
To celebrate this anniversary and these values of humanism, multiculturalism, and scientific curiosity, we have put together a program packed with events from January through December 2020.
Our hope? That the various communities—academics, healthcare professionals, and the people of Montpellier—will be able to (re)discover our Faculty and join us in celebrating medicine and its history through a variety of scientific, educational, and recreational events. Exhibitions will also be featured throughout the year, highlighting our heritage.
“We will be hosting high-level events.For example, a symposium featuring leading international scientific publishers, a symposium on ‘Humanity and Science’ exploring the relationship between medicine and society and the public’s skepticism toward scientific facts, (…). We will also have sessions on ‘ethics and cancer,’ ‘gender equality in health,’ ‘medicinal plants,’ and a day dedicated to contemporary history and the major advances in medicine during the 20th century.” – Michel Mondain, Dean
Our students will also take center stage with the organization of an International Student Gala in June, to mark the visit of the Coimbra Group, Europe’s leading network of universities. They will also be honored at the Agnès McLaren Thesis Award ceremony in November.
Finally, there will also be fun and festive events, including the TAUST game nights and the Murder Mystery Nights at the Manoir du Crime…
To learn more…
- Watch the Press Conference Again
- Press Kit / Program
- Midi Libre – 800 Years of the School of Medicine: 10 Events You Won't Want to Miss
- La Tribune – The Montpellier School of Medicine is set to celebrate its 800th anniversary
