Board of Regents Endorses UC-Riverside Medical School Proposal
The UC Board of Regents on Thursday unanimously endorsed the proposal for a new medical school at UC-Riverside, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reports. The approval allows UC-Riverside to continue the planning process -- including hiring a dean, developing a curriculum and producing a final proposal and business plan.
The final plan requires the approval of the:
- UC president;
- UC Board of Regents; and the
- California Postsecondary Education Commission (Agha, Riverside Press-Enterprise, 11/16).
UC-Riverside officials estimate a shortage of more than 1,100 physicians by 2015 in inland Southern California. The medical school would help alleviate the shortage (Zatynksi, Palm Springs Desert Sun, 11/17).
The university plans to begin enrollment in 2012, and aims to have 384 medical students and 160 graduate students by 2022.
The estimated cost of the medical school is $875 million over 15 years (Riverside Press-Enterprise, 11/16). The school will be funded through a combination of state and federal money, as well as through grants and private donations (Kabbany, North County Times, 11/17).
Even with the proposed medical school at UC-Riverside, the state "will not be training nearly as many medical professionals as will be needed for its growing and aging population," according to an editorial in the Merced Sun-Star. The shortage provides a "strong argument" for a second new medical school at UC-Merced, the editorial states.
The goal of the proposed medical school at UC-Merced is to serve the entire San Joaquin Valley, which "already suffers from too few physicians," the editorial states (Merced Sun-Star, 11/16).