St. Elizabeth University of Health and Social Work in Bratislava, n. o. was established by a resolution of the Government of the Slovak Republic on September 24, 2003, through the granting of state approval to the non-profit organization St. Elizabeth University of Health and Social Work in Bratislava, n. o. The institution continues the legacy of the Elizabethan University in Bratislava (1914–1919) and follows a mission and vision that integrates healthcare and social work, inspired by the heritage of the Bratislava native, St. Elizabeth, dating back to 1214.
Most departments relocated to Szeged and Novi Sad, while theoretical disciplines moved to Szeged and Budapest. This included Hungarian professors who declined to sign the so-called Beneš Oath, among them the future Nobel Prize laureate in Medicine, Prof. Albert Szent-Györgyi. He maintained a laboratory in the building at Námestie 1. mája No. 1 and authored the first publications on Vitamin C.
The restoration of the St. Elizabeth tradition followed the approval of the Government and the Ministry of Education in September 2003, when Ing. Mikuláš Dzurinda and the Government of the Slovak Republic, through a statesmanlike decision, returned the Elizabethan tradition to Bratislava. Two years after the university's establishment, the first statue of St. Elizabeth in Bratislava was unveiled at Bratislava Castle. Historically, only midwifery and nursing training remained in Bratislava at the university hospital and dormitory on Leškova Street, where Sr. Zdenka Schellingová, the first Slovak sainted healthcare worker, also studied.
St. Elizabeth University of Health and Social Work in Bratislava, n. o. began offering study programs in 2003 in the fields of Social Work and Nursing. It gradually expanded its academic portfolio to include Public Health and other healthcare programs (2011–2018), such as Laboratory Examination Methods in Healthcare, Urgent Healthcare, Midwifery, Missiology and Charitable Work, and Psychology. In 2008, the University became a signatory of the Magna Charta Universitatum in Bologna, and in 2011, it became a full member of the European University Association (EUA) in Brussels.
