The School of Medicine – University of Crete, announce that applications for the academic year 2025- 2026 for the Graduate Program in “Exercise and exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation in patients with cardiac disease” are now open.

Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is a multidisciplinary process for patients recovering after an acute cardiac event or with chronic cardiovascular disease that reduces mortality and morbidity and improves quality of life. It is considered a cost-effective intervention and is expressly indicated in the guidelines of the major medical societies. The area of CR is still underdeveloped and the career across Europe is expected to grow and produce lot of job opportunities across. Cardiologists with a special training in cardiac rehabilitation have a critical role in supervising these programs or coordinate a cardiac rehabilitation center. In addition, since the population of patients with cardiovascular disease is increasing rapidly and prone to adverse events during exercise, other medical specialists with a focus in rehabilitation will gain a big precedence with this Program. Cardiac rehabilitation specialists can work in a variety of settings, including hospitals and cardiac centers and can choose from several different career tracks. Apart from the medical part, career options in the cardiac rehabilitation field can include nutritional counseling, nursing and physical therapy.

The Program leads to a Master’s Degree in “Exercise and exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation in patients with cardiac disease” after two semesters of courses and the completion of a dissertation in the third semester of studies.

In the first two semesters, students take in total 9 mandatory courses summing 60 ECTS.
In the third semester the students are engaged in research and the completion of the dissertation.
During the 1st and 2nd semesters of studies, the program is conducted online using modern and asynchronous education methods. In the 3rd semester, students are required to attend a three (3) week internship and clinical practice.

For more information, please visit the program’s website

For the active call, please refer to this document

Applications deadline: July 31st, 2025