The foundation of Comenius University in Bratislava was closely linked with the needs of the new Czechoslovak state, which was established, after the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the end of October 1918. After the formation of the Czechoslovak Republic, almost all the members of the intelligentsia, loyal to the monarchy, left our territory leaving Slovakia in the position where it lacked its own layer of scholars. Therefore, the fundamental role of the new university, established by an act of law on 27th June 1919, was to educate a domestic intelligentsia for the key areas of life in Slovak society. This was also reflected in the focus of the first four faculties: the Faculties  of Medicine, Law, Arts and Natural Sciences, which were intended to educate the doctors, lawyers, teachers, civil servants, cultural employees and employees who would perform activities to raise awareness that were so needed in society. However, due to the serious political, social, financial and organisational problems of the post-war period, only the Faculty of Medicine began to operate in the year that the university was founded; the Faculties of Law and Arts followed two years later, and the Faculty of Natural Sciences in 1940.
Slovakia had no professional academics, hence professors from Charles University in Prague who worked at Comenius University were of great significance for the development of the university as they educated the first generations of modern Slovak scholars and established the academic freedoms and traditions, long cultivated in Prague, at the first Slovak university.  Comenius University thus became not only the place where the new Slovak intelligentsia was formed, but also became the cradle of Slovak science and research. Charles University was in fact the mother of Comenius University, and in the same way, the oldest Slovak university and its professors made a decisive contribution to the development of other Slovak universities.
Today, Comenius University is a modern educational, science and research institution, fully integrated into the family of European universities. More than 23,000 students study at its thirteen faculties, it employs approximately 4,000 people and the range of subjects offered has a tremendously broad scope in the fields of human knowledge, ranging from medicine to the humanities, the social sciences, natural sciences, mathematics and the physical sciences through to theology. It is by far the largest Slovak university and the most comprehensive classical university in Slovakia. As far as scientific research, its second most significant activity, is concerned, Comenius University, along with the Slovak Academy of Sciences, contributes the strongest portion of Slovakia’s scientific and research potential and delivers research outcomes that are at least comparable to those in the international research environment. Through these characteristics, Comenius University in Bratislava is the only Slovak university, which has regularly been ranked in respected international rankings for the quality of universities over the long term.
However, its most significant achievement is that its graduates, almost 250,000 of them, have had an irreplaceable, even decisive impact in shaping the face of the modern Slovakia.
                                                                                                                                                                                                     Vincent Múcska