Medicinska fakulteta Univerze v Ljubljani 1919–1945 - Univerza v ...

grew into the Ljubljana University Completion Campaign� In
the mid-thirties, conditions in the Ljubljana hospital which was
supposed to receive the future faculty clinics were extremely
bad� The departments were obsolete, overcrowded and poorly
equipped� The medical students’ campaign for a complete
faculty thus blended with a demand for a new modern hospital
in Ljubljana, which was organised as the Ljubljana Hospital
Expansion Campaign� The united movement was presided over
by Prof� Albert Šerko and supported also by University Rector
Prof� Maks Samec� In late 1935, a brochure about the burning
situation of patients at all the Ljubljana hospital’s departments
was published�
In 1936, the Decree on Medical faculties was passed, to be
amended in 1937, which specified 33 main or compulsory and
20 secondary subjects categorized into examination groups� The
faculty decree provided for a complete Faculty of Medicine, but
its realisation was hindered by the Act on Universities, which in
Article 51 repeated the provision from the 1919 establishment
act that the Ljubljana Medical Faculty temporarily consist of
only four semesters� The Faculty Council adopted a decision at
its meeting of 23 November, based on which a proposal was sent
through the Rector’s Office on 26 November to the education
minister to strike off this article from the act and to finally equate
the Ljubljana Medical Faculty, after 19 years of existence, with the
other two faculties, and asked the education minister to take all
the necessary steps to complete the Ljubljana Faculty of Medicine�
With Article 51 repealed, Ljubljana would also be governed by
Article 99 of the general university decree which stipulated the
number and titles of chairs at medical faculties and by Articles
3, 4 and 6 of the medical decree which provide for the courses,
institutes and clinics at respective chairs� Specific proposals put
forward by the Faculty Council included the proposal to establish
a pathological-anatomical institute, pharmacological & toxicological
institute, an institute of forensic medicine, an institute of
battlefield medicine, a hygiene institute, an institute of bacteriology,
serology and immunology, an internal clinic, a surgical clinic
(with the following departments: general surgery, orthognathic
surgery, urology, orthopaedics, gynaecological & obstetric
clinic, psychiatric & neurological clinic, children’s clinic, clinic
for infectious diseases, ophthalmological clinic, dermatology
& venereology clinic, otorhinolaryngological clinic, clinic of
odonto-stomatology, physical therapy institute and radiological
institute), to make plans for the institutes and clinics needed for
semesters five and six (internal and surgical clinic, pathological-
-anatomical institute, institute of bacteriology, serology and
immunology, pharmacological & toxicological institute and radiological
institute), to include the funding for them in the 1938/39
budget and to promptly provide a construction site for them�
They also asked for the classification of part-time lecturer posts for
the fifth semester: the proposed lecturers were Prof� Plečnik for
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pathological anatomy, Assist� Prof� Ivan Matko for internal propaedeutics,
Assist� Prof� Božidar Lavrič for surgical propaedeutics
and Prof� Alija Košir for clinical oncology� On 20 May 1938, the
Faculty Council adopted also a memorandum urging the deletion
of Article 51 from the act on the grounds that, since the Belgrade
and Zagreb faculties had been improved and made complete in
their twenty years of existence, it is fair and logical that, on the
twentieth anniversary of the Kingdom, the improvement and
completion of the Faculty of Medicine in Ljubljana should begin
as well� It also argued that this objective was not just the expression
of local efforts but also grounded in the interests of the country’s
general health care and the specific situation in Slovenia, and in
addition emphasized that Ljubljana had had a university with
a complete medical faculty in Napoleon’s era and that if it was
necessary then, it was even more vital now� The rector repeated
his demand to the education minister to delete Article 51 from
the 1939 Act on Universities when the Ljubljana University was
celebrating its twentieth anniversary and the ceremonies were
attended by government representatives� The financial minister
expressed a favourable view of Ljubljana University’s completion
to the rector� The University Senate sent a delegation composed
of the rector, Dean Kansky and Professor Plečnik to Belgrade
to intervene personally for the removal of Article 51 of the Act
on Universities� The rector also saw the Ban who promised his
support to the faculty and his personal intervention in Belgrade�
On the suggestion of the head of the Department of Education, an
action committee was established which included: the Education
Department’s head and his deputy, the dean of the Faculty of
Medicine and two of its professors, the Technical Department’s
head, an architect, the Social Department’s head and the Ljubljana
Building Department’s representative� The work programme of
the action committee was to negotiate amendments to the Act
on Universities, formulate a programme for the improvement of
individual subjects and prepare teachers for specialization, draw
up a construction programme (the clinic and institute issue, their
order and the issue of premises), obtain funding, land and designs�
In 1940, Ljubljana was also visited by the education minister,
who approved the demand for the completion of the Faculty of
Medicine and drew up a budget for the fifth and sixth semesters�
The current dean, Prof� Evgen Kansky, set forth the importance
of opening a third year for the future development of the faculty
in a study and proved the reality of its existence with graphic
tables� In the 1940/41 academic year, a supplementary decree
of the Education Ministry authorized a systematic expansion of
the faculty, approved an additional sum in the budget and loans
for the appointment of new teaching staff for the fifth and sixth
semester� In view of the urgency of opening new semesters and
in accordance with the general university decree, it was proposed
at the Faculty Council’s meeting of 22 May 1940 to assign the
chairs for internal medicine, surgery and pathological anatomy
by invitation and not by tendering as normal� On the basis of