Section of Medicine Lübeck

The University of Lübeck is dedicated to medicine, natural sciences, and engineering; the Section of Medicine has been training students since 1964 and uses the Lübeck campus of the University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein with 1,104 beds. Unlike most locations, Lübeck has no dentistry program. In return, its research profiles are sharply defined: Infection and Inflammation, Brain, Hormones and Behavior, and Biomedical Engineering. The last is particularly characteristic — medicine, computer science, and engineering share a single campus in close proximity.

This location suits you if technical questions in medicine interest you — imaging, robotics, or medical devices, for example — or if you want to move toward neuroscience and infectious disease research. With 192 places per cohort and a small, compact university, distances and group sizes stay manageable. Anyone looking for a large comprehensive university with a broad range of humanities and social sciences will not find that in Lübeck.

Allocation runs nationwide via hochschulstart.de: 30 percent of places through the top-grades quota, 10 percent through the additional aptitude quota in which the school-leaving grade is not counted, and 60 percent through the university's own selection process. In that process, Lübeck combines the school-leaving grade with the result of the TMS and takes a completed vocational qualification in a healthcare profession into account; the exact weightings are set out in the University of Lübeck's admissions regulations.

No tuition fees apply. The only payment is the University of Lübeck's semester contribution, which is set each semester.

Small Faculty, Close Contact, Clear Structure

The University of Lübeck is a specialist university for medicine and life sciences: alongside the Section of Medicine there are only the departments of Computer Science and Engineering and Natural Sciences. Human medicine is offered as a standard curriculum leading to the Staatsexamen; the program begins exclusively in the winter semester, and the standard duration is twelve semesters and three months.

The preclinical phase covers four semesters and a nursing placement and concludes with the First Section of the Medical Licensing Examination. Six clinical semesters follow, including clinical placements (Famulaturen) and the Second Section, then the Praktisches Jahr with one tertial each in surgery and internal medicine, one elective tertial, and the oral-practical Third Section.

In terms of content, Lübeck works with three guiding principles: patient safety, studying in good health, and specialist studies plus. These are accompanied by longitudinal strands in prevention, communication, and emergency medicine running through the entire curriculum, linked to the university's research priorities. Practical skills and consultation techniques are trained from the third semester onward in the TÜFTL, the training and practice center for medical skills. Interprofessional learning, mentoring, and regular student feedback on workload are part of the concept; in surveys such as the CHE Ranking, Lübeck consistently achieves very strong results for supervision and study conditions.

The Praktisches Jahr is completed at the University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein, Lübeck campus, or at teaching hospitals across northern Germany; a large number of teaching practices are available for outpatient training. The Staatsexamen grants the Approbation, valid nationwide.

A Campus University with Short Distances

With its old town island and UNESCO World Heritage status, Lübeck provides an unusually attractive setting for a medical degree, and the university is small enough that you get to know people within a few weeks. The campus is on Ratzeburger Allee in the south of the city, directly adjacent to the University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein, Lübeck campus. Lecture halls, institutes, library, canteen, and wards are all within walking distance of each other — which makes timetables considerably more relaxed than at sprawling big-city faculties.

Contact with teachers and administration is correspondingly direct; points of contact are reachable rather than hidden behind numbers. This close-knit atmosphere comes up repeatedly in student accounts.

People live in the St. Jürgen district near campus, in the old town, or in student services dormitories. Rent is clearly below the level of nearby Hamburg, but the market tightens at the start of the winter semester when all first-year students arrive at once.

Daily life is flat and bicycle-friendly, the Baltic coast at Travemünde is roughly twenty minutes away and water sports are correspondingly popular. Hamburg is about three-quarters of an hour away by regional train, so the city and its cultural life are always accessible without having to live there.

What makes Lübeck distinctive as a location for medicine?

Lübeck is a small specialist university for medicine and life sciences with a campus directly adjacent to the university hospital. Distances are short, groups are small, and contact with teachers is close. In student surveys such as the CHE Ranking, the Section of Medicine regularly achieves top scores for supervision and study conditions.

Is the program a model curriculum?

No, Lübeck uses the standard curriculum: four preclinical semesters with a nursing placement, six clinical semesters with Famulaturen, and then the Praktisches Jahr. The three sections of the Medical Licensing Examination are taken in the standard sequence.

What is the TÜFTL?

The training and practice center for medical skills is the university's skills lab. From the third semester onward, you practice practical procedures and medical consultation skills on models and in simulated situations before applying them to patients.

Where can you do the Praktisches Jahr?

Options include the University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein at the Lübeck campus and teaching hospitals across northern Germany. For the outpatient component and general medicine, the Section cooperates with a large number of teaching practices in the region.

How do you apply?

Places are allocated centrally via hochschulstart, with a top-grades quota, an additional aptitude quota, and the university's own selection process; school-leaving grade and the university aptitude test carry the most weight, and a relevant vocational qualification may count additionally. The program starts only in the winter semester. Medschool Experts advises on paths into medicine without a Numerus clausus and is not involved in the allocation of German state-funded places.