Friday, September 01, 2006
UCF gets OK for a medical school
UCF President John Hitt called the Board of Governor's vote "a major milestone" for the university and the Central Florida community.
"We look forward to serving the community, state and nation by providing needed doctors and improving health care," Hitt says.
Thursday's vote capped a two-year effort by UCF and FIU to persuade critics that the state needed not one but two medical schools. Hitt and FIU President Modesto Maidique have consistently argued that the schools will help meet Florida's urgent need for more physicians, as well create enormous economic impact in their respective regions and the state.
UCF's economic impact study projects that the medical school alone could generate $1.4 billion a year in economic activity and more than 6,400 jobs in 10 years.
The study goes on to project that the impact could balloon to $6.4 billion and 26,000 jobs over 10 years if a life-science cluster of related research and business develops around the
