Karolinska Institute

The Karolinska Institutet, or Karolinska Institute, occasionally translated as the Royal Caroline Institute, is a medical university in the greater Stockholm metropolitan area, in Sweden. Founded in 1810, it is one of the most prestigious medical universities in Europe, and Sweden’s third-oldest medical school (though a full 350 years younger than its oldest, Uppsala University).

Originally, it served as a training center for army surgeons, who were much in need following the Finnish War. “Karolinska” is named in honor of Swedish King Karl (or “Carolus” in Latin) XIII; the modern name was chosen in 1968, an abbreviation of the Kongliga Karolinska Medico Chirurgiska Institutet. Today, it is one of the top 10 medical universities in the world by many ranking systems and is consistently ranked the ...