The LMU Faculty of Medicine offers courses taught in English that combine hands-on clinical training with a wide range of theoretical topics. These courses are open to both international medical students and their LMU peers
Over the course of four weeks, senior medical students from LMU and from around the world gain in-depth exposure to daily life in either a neurology or an oncology clinic.
Under the direction of experienced faculty members, students spend their mornings on hospital wards, observing and assisting with patient care from admission through diagnostics to therapy. In the afternoons, they participate in seminars that focus on current diagnostic methods, therapeutic approaches, and clinical case discussions in small groups led by experienced faculty members.
The program also emphasizes problem-oriented communication skills, particularly in challenging situations such as delivering difficult news or helping patients cope with their fears as they face the prospect of stressful treatments. Additionally, the courses cover clinical reasoning and offer insight into translational research conducted at LMU.
Each international student is paired with a local LMU medical student, their so-called Study Buddy, to help them settle in as well as to assist on the wards. Apart from clinical training, participants also enjoy a cultural and social program that includes excursions and activities in and around Munich.
For LMU students, the courses can count toward their clinical elective (Famulatur).
Read the article at: LMU Newsroom
Language of instruction: English
Important dates for the 2026 program:
Program timeline:
Programmed for practice
The aim of the four-week program at LMU is to acquaint students with everyday routines in an oncology hospital. Mornings include ward visits and teaching rounds and afternoons are dedicated to seminars covering a wide range of oncology disciplines, taught by leading specialists.
As well as getting to know the day-to-day routines on the wards, the students are introduced to clinical laboratory work, familiarize themselves with radiology or hyperthermia, try their hand at image-based functional diagnostics and attend the weekly oncological review conducted by the staff specialists at the Medical Center.
International students are supported throughout by their Study Buddies.
On weekends, there’s time to relax and enjoy what Munich and its surroundings have to offer: Students go on skiing trips together, attend a concert or a ballet, view the paintings in the Pinakothek, or visit nearby attractions such as Neuschwanstein Castle.
Course Dates: 3 – 27 March 2026
Maximum Participants: 20 (including LMU students)
Target group / prerequisites
The Winter School is designed for senior medical students, especially those from LMU medical faculty's partner universities, who attend this four-week rotation alongside senior LMU students.
Each international student is matched with an LMU Study Buddy who helps to pilot his or her partner through the complexities of hospital practice.
Upon completion, all students receive a course certificate. LMU students also receive documentation for their internship ("Zeugnis über die Tätigkeit als Famulus/Famula").
Application
Procedure for Internationals & LMU Students (PDF, 122 KB)
Apply here for the Oncology Winter School
Program Fees (for international students)
Fees are due upon acceptance into the program. Participation is free for LMU students.
Fees cover:
Cancellation policy
If you wish to cancel, please contact us immediately.
Contact us
For inquiries or further information, please contact: international.office@med.lmu.de
Programmed for practice
The aim of this four-week program at LMU is to acquaint students with everyday routines in a neurology hospital. Mornings are spent on ward visits and teaching rounds, and afternoons feature seminars from a wide range of specialist disciplines where participants learn from leading experts.
Issues for consideration include:
The international students integrate into our medical team during the entire course of the Winter School. They hospitalize patients and discuss the anamnesis of physical examination and test results as well as the adequate treatment with their respective ward doctors or consultants.
Furthermore, specific tutorials are held which instruct the students how to discuss clinical cases in a problem-oriented and cooperative manner. Small group training sessions and seminars involve diagnostic tools in neurology, interpersonal communication, simulations based on standardized patients and other elements of the medical professional’s skill set.
International students are supported throughout by their Study Buddies.
On weekends, there’s time to relax and enjoy what Munich and its surroundings have to offer: Students go on skiing trips together, attend a concert or a ballet, view the paintings in the Pinakothek, or visit nearby attractions such as Neuschwanstein Castle.
Course Dates: 3 – 27 March 2026
Maximum Participants: 10 (including LMU students)
Target group / prerequisites
The Winter School is designed for senior medical students, especially those from LMU medical faculty's partner universities, who attend this four-week rotation alongside senior LMU students.
Each international student is matched with an LMU Study Buddy who helps to pilot his or her partner through the complexities of hospital practice.
Upon completion, all students receive a course certificate. LMU students also receive documentation for their internship ("Zeugnis über die Tätigkeit als Famulus/Famula").
Application
Procedure for Internationals & LMU Students (PDF, 122 KB) (PDF, 122 KB)
Apply here for the Neurology Winter School
Program Fees (for international students)
Fees are due upon acceptance into the program. Participation is free for LMU students.
Fees cover:
Cancellation policy
If you wish to cancel, please contact us immediately.
Contact us
For inquiries or further information, please contact: international.office@med.lmu.de
This course will not be offered during the 2024-2025 academic year.
Organized worldwide together with partner universities in Bari, Italy, and St. Louis, USA.
In 70–80% of cases, a diagnosis can be arrived at from the medical history if it is taken correctly, and possibly painful and costly tests are avoided. Learning how to filter important facts from the patient's narrative requires a great deal of practice. This course will teach you how to get there.
In addition to purely medical topics, the course also covers such subjects as Equal Opportunities and Intercultural Communication. Additional peer-teaching groups cultivate a dialogue between medical students. Among other things the course offers ideal preparation for OSCEs.
Read the article at: LMU Newsroom
In this online course, students learn and practice structured and comprehensive methods of collecting a patient’s medical history. Since each teaching unit is accompanied by experienced clinicians from various disciplines at LMU and the international network universities, the students have an opportunity to discuss cases in a differentiated manner. In addition to purely medical topics, the course also covers such subjects as Equal Opportunities and Intercultural Communication. Additional peer-teaching groups cultivate a dialogue between medical students.
Innovative, international teaching formats
“At times, the pandemic made global dialogue very difficult. But at the same time, it opened up new possibilities,” says program leader Professor Orsolya Genzel-Boroviczény. After having to move many events onto the Internet during the lockdown, she had the idea of a virtual course on the subject of ‘History Taking’. That course is now being organized worldwide together with partner universities in Bari, Italy, and St. Louis, USA. The international exchange students at LMU can earn credit points if they pass a non-obligatory short exam at the end of the program.
The course looks at specific ways to take down patients’ medical histories. “It is difficult to teach physical examinations online,” Professor Genzel-Boroviczény admits. “But for budding doctors, communication is just as essential as technical skills in the operating theater. And we also benefit here from the international community.”
Intercultural communication in the operating theater
The course addresses standard questions that are important when diagnosing an illness, for example. But it also tackles the difficulties that must be overcome when asking about the patient’s history. Special characteristics of children and young people are explored, as are gender-specific questions and racist thought patterns that could hinder a correct diagnosis. The focus is also on intercultural communication: After all, how patients deal with different health-related topics and how they respond to sensitive questions varies all over the world. Innovative teaching formats such as the ‘History Taking’ course broaden the spectrum of offerings that cultivate dialogue between medical students.
“Not everyone can go abroad while a student,” Genzel-Boroviczény says. “This makes it even more rewarding that there are now new opportunities to sign up for international courses despite that and to learn from colleagues from all over the world.”
Content
So that students around the world and from the international universities involved can participate, training and communication workshops take place in late afternoon, Central European Time, throughout the summer semester.
The following subjects from various specialist disciplines form the basis for this and offer an opportunity for practice:
Medicine and Culture
Medicine does not happen in a vacuum but rather integrated into society in general. It thus reflects society in both its strengths and weaknesses. In this lecture, we will review how different cultures view the same pathology, how some cultures seem to invent pathologies, what diversity means for medical caregivers and evidence for structural racism in medicine. This lecture does not offer solutions but rather presents data and information that can form the foundation for reflection and discussion which may lead to insightful medical care in increasing global societies.
Workshops
Simulation game
The simulation game is a role-playing game between the students from all the universities participating.
In the context of a game, the students are expected to act as a team and deal with patient cases. They not only play the role of doctors, but also of the patients, their family, nurses and observers. The roles are allocated at random by drawing lots in advance.
The students will spend time together in two meetings in a virtual emergency department specifically tailored to the game. The aim of the first meeting is to practice talking through medical histories, time management, and presenting patient cases to the group. In the second simulation game the focus is on Breaking Bad News and conducting difficult conversations. Both simulations involve practicing constructive feedback and error management. The game is intended to provide the students with a protected space in which to try things out, to reflect on mistakes where applicable and, as future doctors, to develop a better empathy for future patients, their families and colleagues in interprofessional teams.
History taking in the host country´s language
One part of the course involves peer teaching and gives students a chance to improve their language skills and to develop intercultural awareness.
Students will be paired to practice in their exchange country´s language. For example an Italian student with a German student. The "patient" speaks his/her native language, the "physician" the patient´s language. This is excellent preparation for Erasmus Students for their actual stay in the other country.
This course is also a preparation for the USMLE (United States Medical Licensing Exam) Step 1 to 3, where history taking is an important part.
ECTS credits
3 (Only if OSCE is passed. Students who opt out the exam receive the course certificate if they were present throughout the program.)
Application
Next application cycle tba.
Documents to be submitted:
Students from Munich, Bari and St. Louis have priority for admission.
Program Director: Caroline Plett
Contact us: international.office@med.lmu.de
The LMU Medicine International offers several additional international teaching formats. The ICDSS (LMU/TU/Weill Cornell Medical College/Washington University/GAME-Partner) and the JOCCD (GAME-Partner) are just two amongst several opportunities for students of LMU and the mentioned partner universities. More details and information on application procedures can be found here.