Medicine Universität Heidelberg: Hospital Merger Creates Precondition for Combining the Two Medical Faculties

The merging of the two university hospitals − Heidelberg and Mannheim − is to take place officially early next year after the Council of Ministers of the State of Baden-Württemberg has decided on details regarding the future cooperation and participation of the two hospitals. That will also create the preconditions for Heidelberg University to further advance the amalgamation of the Medical Faculty Heidelberg and the Medical Faculty Mannheim. The university’s two medical faculties are to be combined in a joint faculty as of January 2027. That will give rise to one of the biggest medical faculties in Germany, which – through joining up their strengths – will offer outstanding conditions for basic research, the training of medical personnel and transfer into hospital practice. 

Merging the hospitals and amalgamating the medical faculties allow for a cross-locational structure and development planning, which with its strategic prioritization will take the hospital merger and the new joint faculty further into the future in terms of research, teaching, and clinical practice. The merger solution at the same time strengthens the innovation campus Health & Life Science Alliance Heidelberg Mannheim, which is designed to become highly attractive for top national and international figures from medicine and research, raise patient care to a new level and sustainably boost the health economy. 

Prof. Dr Frauke Melchior, Rector of Heidelberg University: “The university welcomes the merger solution and thanks the ministries involved and the state for this forward-looking decision. The future of biomedical and health research lies in linking up complementary disciplines and institutions – and in structures that promote interdisciplinary cooperation and specialist exchange, provide top-flight technologies and draw the best researchers, students and staff from home and abroad.” 

“The state’s decision to merge the university hospitals is an important step in further developing the region. The innovative Heidelberg – Mannheim ecosystem offers a unique basis for transferring findings from basic research into hospital care in a way that is faster and more focused, and for engaging in excellent, research-based teaching at the highest level. With it, we are making a core contribution to shaping the profile of the University of Excellence and implementing its strategic goals,” underlines Prof. Dr Michael Boutros, Dean of the Medical Faculty Heidelberg. 

Prof. Dr Sergij Goerdt, Dean of the Medical Faculty Mannheim, states: “Joining up the university hospitals will produce a merger of enormous appeal, uniting two locations rich in tradition and each with great potential. The interplay of amalgamating the two medical faculties will give a decisive boost to the international standing and visibility of medicine in the Rhine-Neckar Metropolitan Region and in Baden-Württemberg. Continuing to offer the prestigious MaReCuM and HeiCuMed courses in human medicine, which complement one another at the two locations, will make the training of physicians – so essential for the population’s health care – fit to face the future.”