Regents endorse med school for UCR

By gedward on November 20, 2006 6:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A planned medical school for UC Riverside cleared an important hurdle last week as the Regents for the University of California approved initial plans for what would become the state's sixth UC medical school and first new one in over 40 years.

The unanimous endorsement by the Regents means UCR can continue finalizing its plan as well as hire a dean and develop curriculum. A final plan is expected to be delivered to the Regents in late 2007, which will then be forwarded to the California Postsecondary Education Commission for final approval.

"It's just great. We are enthusiastically supportive of it," said regent Sherry Lansing.
The Press-Enterprise

Building upon the current UCR/UCLA Thomas Haider Program in Biomedical Sciences, UCR expects to begin enrolling its first full class in 2012 with degrees awarded beginning 2016. Plans are to have 384 medical students and 160 graduate students by 2022.

The future medical school, which comes on the heels of an advisory group's recommendation that UC boost overall medical school enrollment as well as plan for at least one new medical school, is an important step in addressing a projected shortage of as many as 17,000 physicians statewide by 2022. It also opens the door for a key economic incubator for UC Riverside and Inland Southern California in general.

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