HISTORY
The University of Veterinary Medicine and Pharmacy in Košice (UVMP in Košice), established as the Veterinary College in Košice, is the sole university for veterinary education in the Slovak Republic, which is provided both to domestic and foreign students, and one of the two universities offering education in pharmacy.
The University of Veterinary Medicine and Pharmacy in Košice was established by an Act of the Slovak National Council on 16 December 1949 as the Veterinary College in Košice, though it began its teaching activities with its first lecture on 5 October 1949. Its founding was the culmination of many years of effort aimed at establishing a school of veterinary medicine in Slovakia, since before then those interested in such study had to go abroad, in particular to the veterinary university in Brno, and after its closure during the Second World War, to Vienna. In the post-war period the raising of agricultural animals was threatened by dangerous contagions, and the concentration of animals for collective breeding complicated the situation even further; thus the need for a veterinary school in Slovakia grew such that the foundation of such an institution in Košice became a reality.
In 1952 by government resolution, the Veterinary College in Košice lost its independence, when it was attached as a veterinary faculty to the Agricultural University in Nitra. Efforts to return it to independence finally succeeded by ratification of a law in 1968, and from the start of the 1969/1970 academic year, it again became an independent university. This was reflected in the change of the school’s name in 1992, when the Veterinary College in Košice was renamed as the University of Veterinary Medicine in Košice. With the introduction of a new study programme in pharmacy in the 2006/2007 academic year, the university requested another name change, and as of 15 January 2010 it bears a new name: the University of Veterinary Medicine and Pharmacy in Košice.
These changes were accompanied by a change in the university logo. The new logo retained the form and the colours of the original logo of the Veterinary College in Košice consisting of a bevelled letter “V” and the Staff of Asclepius with a serpent coiled around it. In 2008, its shape became circular with the name of the university on the circumference of the circle. The new study programme which had induced the name change was referred to by adding a pair of scales and supplementing the name of the university in the existing logo.
UVMP in Košice is a one faculty university providing undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate veterinary education and pharmaceutical education.
ACADEMIC REPRESENTATIVES
The Veterinary College in Košice 1949 – 1952
The Veterinary Faculty of the University of Agriculture Nitra 1952 – 1969
The Veterinary College in Košice 1969 – 1992
The University of Veterinary Medicine in Košice 1 April 1992 – 14 January 2015
The University of Veterinary Medicine and Pharmacy in Košice 15 January 2015 – present
RECTORS AND DEANS
Academician Ján Hovorka
Rector 1949 – 1952
Prof. Tomáš Gdovin, DVM
Dean 1952 – 1959
Academician Otto Jaroslav Vrtiak
Dean 1959 – 1963
Rector 1972 – 1976 1976 – 1980 1980 – 1985 1985 – 1988
Prof. Ján Lazar, DVM
Dean 1963 – 1964 1964 – 1966 1966 – 1969
Rector 1969 – 1972
Prof. František Lešník, DVM, DrSc.
Rector 1988 – 1989
Prof. Dušan Magic, DVM, PhD, Dr. h. c.
Rector 1990 – 1991 1997 – 2000
Prof. Rudolf Cabadaj, DVM, PhD, Dr. h. c.
Rector 1991 – 1994 1994 – 1997 2000 – 2003 2003 – 2007
Prof. Emil Pilipčinec, DVM, PhD
Rector 2007 – 2011 2011 – 2015
Prof. Jana Mojžišová, DVM, PhD, Dr. h. c.
Rector 2015 – 2019 2019 – 2023
Prof. Jozef Nagy, DVM, PhD
Rector 2023 – present