UT-Austin Medical School Gets a Go From Regents
It’s an open secret that the United States can’t educate all the doctors the country needs. There aren’t enough slots in existing medical schools domestically, and starting a medical school requires such tremendous investment that only rarely is it tried.
Today one of the nation’s fastest-growing cities—in its second-biggest state—made a huge commitment toward trying it.
The UT System Board of Regents voted to provide a UT-Austin medical school $30 million annually through its first eight years and $25 million each year thereafter. The money, regents said, would come from Permanent University Fund proceeds.
The funding support came not long after Seton Healthcare Family made a preliminary commitment of $250 million toward building a new teaching hospital. The new facility would replace University Medical Center Brackenridge just down the road from the Forty Acres.
UT-Austin president Bill Powers praised the move on his blog. “The founding of a medical school at UT would be an enormous event in the life of the University, would offer dramatic new opportunities for our students and our faculty, and would advance health care in Central Texas,” he wrote.
Support for the move went beyond the University community. In a letter thanking committee members, Sen. Kirk Watson—perhaps the med school’s biggest proponent—called today’s decision an “exciting, extraordinary vote that will help define Austin as a center for 21st century health care excellence.” The senator, a former mayor of the city and a Baylor grad, began leading the governmental push to build a medical school locally last year.
Watson added: “It’s a huge step toward completing the bridge we’ve been building to a healthier, more prosperous future. And it’s a definitive statement that the University of Texas System is dedicated not only to a medical school in Austin, but also to the unique new community partnership we’ve launched to make it happen.”
The UT System and Seton money won’t be all it takes to build the medical school—not by a long shot. A combination of donations, taxes, and assessments is expected to be used locally. “We’ll be working over the coming weeks to flesh out how that participation should look,” Watson wrote.
Regents also voted Thursday to support a medical school for South Texas.
Share this article
![UT Is Transforming Education [Watch]](http://alcalde.texasexes.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Picture-2.png){kind=small}
-
Sheri Budreau: Sounds exciting and promising - Way to let the Orange Pride shine!...
-
Matt Portillo: Interesting perspective, as always, Tim. It's been an interesting week indeed. T...
-
Jerry Cooper: Mr. Taliaferro: Let me commend you for your article about Chairman Powell's "Fo...
-
ethan: well, we kill fire ants so often that they are weker now so the "crazy ants" can...
-
Kathleen Bergeron: Regarding that new logo: I live in the Washington, DC area, and I wonder how man...
3 Comments
[...] short, the regents approved funding to go toward building a medical school in Austin. They also froze undergraduate tuition for in-state students. Every other UT System institution [...]
I am very pleased to hear that my alma mater, UT at Austin, is committed to establishing a medical school by providing $ 30 million per year and fundraising another $ 5 million per year for the next eight years. Austin community has proven its support with the amount of money to bring a medical school to Texas capital; Seton Healthcare Family has pledged to invest $250 million to build a new teaching hospital.
The South Texas leaders have expressed the concerns to the UT Board of Regents about the lack of funding for their Valley medical school and “demanded blueprint and a timeline for a Valley medical school.”
As I spent 2 years in doing my fellowship in South Texas, I experienced the severe shortage of physicians in the area and I share totally with the South Texas leaders’ concern. I am urging the South Texas leaders should seek advice from the president Scott Ransom of UNTHSC at Fort Worth on how to build a medical school, UNTMD, with a very low cost of $21.5 million over 5 year-period.
UT Regents approve 35 millions in allocations for Austin medical school and the real need of increasing medical residency slots in Texas
http://www.eyedrd.org/2012/05/ut-regents-approve-30-millions-in-allocations-for-austin-medical-school.html#more-11818
[...] Pronio-Stelluto, BS ’78, especially enjoyed hearing the news that the UT regents have funded a new medical school for [...]