Festive ceremony
MHB celebrates medical graduates and tenth anniversary

Brandenburg/Havel, 13 July 2024
The Paulikloster in Brandenburg/Havel, a former abbey, was the location of a festive ceremony when the Brandenburg Medical School Theodor Fontane (MHB) said farewell to almost 50 graduates of the Brandenburg Medical Model curriculum on Saturday, 13 July. The young physicians of the fourth cohort to be trained at the MHB are now starting their careers and help to fight the shortage of physicians in Brandenburg. Over 300 guests attended the ceremony, among them Barbara Richstein as vice president of the Brandenburg parliament, State Secretary for Science Tobias Dünow and Steffen Scheller, Lord Mayor of Brandenburg/Havel.
Excellent preparation for the medical profession
MHB president Prof. Hans-Uwe Simon underlined the outstanding features of the Brandenburg Medical Model Curriculum as excellent preparation for the medical profession. He urged the graduates to assume social responsibility and always give their best for the benefit of patients as the main addressees of all their efforts. He also praised student commitment in and for the MHB and gave thanks for untiring dedication in university panels, committees, project and work groups and student initiatives, for constructive feedback and passionate, proactive participation. All these student activities, so Prof. Simon, helped to advance developments at the MHB in many areas; among the examples he mentioned were decentralized teaching formats, the MedSi (registered association of MHB students), the AStA (general students committee), the SkillsLab and the start of the Brandenburg Model Curriculum in Dental Medicine.
The newly qualified physicians in collaboration with their colleagues in MHB hospitals will significantly contribute to fighting the shortage of physicians and improving healthcare in the region and beyond – a great success for our young university, our cooperating hospitals and the entire State of Brandenburg, said Prof. Simon.
One of the first guest speakers was Barbara Richstein, vice president of the Brandenburg parliament. She described medical studies as one of the most challenging disciplines and spoke of the Covid19 pandemic as an additional severe complication for this cohort of students, most of whom started their studies in the summer of 2018. She thanked them for having chosen the MHB with hospital locations in Brandenburg/Havel, Neuruppin, Bernau and Rüdersdorf: “Smaller towns are excellent places of study since they are more inducive to concentration on what is really important. Locals are proud of the MHB and of students as part of the local community.” She went on to assure the MHB of the regional government’s continued support.
MHB will soon have 1000 enrolled students
The farewell ceremony for the graduates was the prelude to celebrating the university’s tenth anniversary. The MHB started out with 86 students in 2014, and a total of 1000 students will be enrolled by the end of the current year. Prof. Simon thanked all founding members, supporters and employees for their valuable contributions: “An African proverb says it takes a village to raise a child. And applied to the MHB, we may say that it took many individuals and an entire region to found and successfully establish a medical school. We are happy and proud that the MHB has developed so splendidly over the past ten years. We are educating wonderful physicians, developing efficient research structures and generating ready-to-use knowledge which feeds back into society. MHB approaches typically focus on problem-solving. As a university we have and assume responsibility, on site in the region and beyond.”
MHB: a location for innovation
Prof. Stefanie Oess, vice dean for student affairs and teaching, recalled the times ten years ago when the MHB was established on a basis of civil commitment and against the background of a shortage of physicians. The foundation charter, so Prof. Oess, clearly illustrates the intention and vision behind that undertaking, the marked regional foothold, and at the same time a strong global, international and universal interest in research and teaching. Student education and research have an equal standing in the document which underlines the specific significance of university training. The Brandenburg Medical Model Curriculum (BMM) was designed to satisfy the requirements of a holistic concept – i.e. to identify, promote and treat where necessary the physical as well as mental, social and spiritual aspects of illness and health. The MHB with its up-to-date and practice-oriented formats stands out in the German university landscape as a location for innovation, so Prof. Oess.
Fotos: Andreas Kunow