Pleven – a city with a rich and preserved cultural and historical heritage that dates back to the end of the fifth millennium BC. The numerous archaeological finds testify to the high material and spiritual culture of the Thracians, who inhabited this region for millennia. During the Ottoman rule, Pleven preserved its Bulgarian appearance, thanks to the built churches, schools, bridges and public buildings. In 1825, the first secular school opened its doors here, and 15 years later the first girls’ school in Bulgaria. In 1865, the foundations of the hospital business were laid, when Midhad Pasha built the first hospital with 40 beds. In the mid-90s of the 20th century, the Pleven hospital became the largest medical and diagnostic facility in the country. The large number of beds, the qualifications of the doctors and the profiled clinical units created over the years in the hospital create a prerequisite for the opening of a medical faculty in Pleven. The created specialized and profiled medical activity with 40 departments and 13 sectors is the basis for the formation of future departments. On March 1, 1974, the first department of neurology and neurosurgery was established, and in the fall of the same year regular classes began. In the next five years, 24 more departments are opened, 14 of which are clinical. The development of the Faculty of Medicine in Pleven during the first years of its existence was outlined by three main directions – teaching-teaching, treatment-diagnostic and scientific-research activities.

Preparations for building a medical faculty in Pleven date back to the beginning of 1974. On the first of February of the same year, Prof. Kyuchukov was appointed the first dean of the faculty, which was then part of the structure of MA-Sofia, and after the renaming of the faculty to the Higher Medical Institute in 1979 – as its rector. The priorities in his activity are creating a material base of the Medical Institute, staffing the departments, providing a clinical base for conducting practical classes in clinical disciplines and creating conditions for the development of scientific research activities. Under the skillful leadership of the rector and with the efforts and enthusiasm of the first teachers, in the academic year 1974/1975, the first graduating class of 250 students of the higher school began classes. A student dormitory with 250 beds is also being built, and with the work of teachers and students – a modern sports hall and four lecture halls.

The second stage of the development of the Faculty of Medicine in Pleven began on January 1, 1979, when, by a decision of the Council of Ministers, it grew into a Higher Medical Institute by integrating with the First Level District Hospital. In this way, better conditions are created for medical-diagnostic and educational work. The management of the departments is assumed by the heads of the departments of clinical disciplines. Unified accounting and management of the administrative-economic activity is created. On September 5, 1980, the first graduation of doctors from the first graduating class of the institute took place. For more than twelve years – until 1986, Prof. Kyuchukov devoted all his energies to the rapid construction and strengthening of the Medical Institute in Pleven.

In the following years, the history of the university was marked by championship and innovation.

In June 2007, a Telecommunication Endoscopy Center, unique for Eastern Europe and the Balkan Peninsula, was opened with an experimental operating room and a virtual room with simulators. The center is equipped with high-tech equipment, which is the most modern in the field of endoscopic surgery. Two teaching amphitheater halls were built with an audiovisual conference network for connection outside the country. The system allows a constant connection between the surgeon during the surgical intervention, the conference and operating rooms, as well as the diagnostic and therapy centers in the country and abroad. All this gives students, doctoral students and specialists a unique opportunity to study with cutting-edge equipment. In the lobby of the Telecommunication Endoscopy Center, the unique and one-of-a-kind Exposition “History of Minimally Invasive Surgery” is located, in the center of which a miniature of the Da Vinci robotic system is displayed. The realization of the exposition is dedicated to the celebration of four important anniversaries: 25 years since the first minimally invasive surgery, performed in the city of Pleven in March 1993; 10 years since the opening of the first telecommunication endoscopy center in South-Eastern Europe, TELEC, at MU-Pleven in June 2007; 10 years since the introduction of robotic surgery for the first time in South-Eastern Europe and in Bulgaria by the team of Prof. Dr. Grigor Gorchev, MD. in January 2008 and 5 years since the introduction for the first time of the concept of “surgery without a scalpel” by treating solid tumors with a device for high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) in Bulgaria and South-Eastern Europe in December 2012.

The year 2014 was significant for the higher school in Pleven with the opening of the fourth faculty of pharmacy. The Faculty of Pharmacy was opened by the Decision of the National Assembly of March 30, 2016 in the structure of the Medical University – Pleven.

Currently, the university has a stable structure of four faculties – Faculty of Medicine, Faculty of Public Health, Faculty of Health Care and the newly opened Faculty of Pharmacy. The College of Medicine and the Department of Language and Specialized Studies are also main units in the structure of the higher school. The youngest unit is the Research Institute. The university offers training in 14 specialties, 4 master’s and 10 bachelor’s programs in 4 professional fields – medicine, pharmacy, health care and public health.

For its 50-year history, Medical University – Pleven (MU-Pleven) has developed dynamically, standing out on the map of higher medical education in our country and in Europe with its modern appearance as a leading educational and research center, attracting more and more Bulgarian and foreign students . Priorities in the activity of the higher school are the development of minimally invasive and robotic surgery, telemedicine and 3D medicine, personalized medicine and bioprinting. The Graduate School builds highly qualified medical and health professionals, prepared to meet the challenges of modern health care and offer the best health service and patient care. For this purpose, the University constantly introduces high-tech educational tools. Part of the digital portfolio of MU-Pleven is the educational platform Lecturio with over 400 interactive 3D anatomy models, 6500 video lectures, 20,000 knowledge test questions and 4,000 clinical case questions created by world-renowned professors from leading universities such as Harvard, Yale , John Hopkins; 3D medical table for virtual dissections; a virtual reality studio with a 360-degree view of the operating room; 3D studio for Live Surgery demonstrations; a training studio with holographic images; augmented reality studio and telepathology, 3D printing and bioprinting laboratories.