New UGA school of medicine

ABBY GIORDANO – While “pre-medical” is  not an official major at UGA, undergraduates can work towards medical school under a variety of majors as long as they complete requirements for medical school. Although there is also no information about how many students at UGA declare pre-med, Biology and biological sciences is the most popular major at the university, awarding a little over 500 degrees in this major every school year (Data 2021). The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) reports that more than half of medical school applicants major in biological sciences and about 49% of UGA students who apply to medical school get accepted (The Odyssey), and the most recent data of Dawg graduates in the workforce from 2021 show that physician is the most common job across all majors (Data 2021). On Wednesday, February 13th, the University System of Georgia Board of Regents voted to establish a new UGA School of Medicine intended independent of the current medical path in Athens that partners with the UGA pre-med system and Augusta University known as the AU/UGA Medical Partnership. The announcement from UGA president, Jere Morehead, explains that the new school will build on this partnership, however, separate and independent of Augusta University in terms of funding, faculty, and land. Traditionally, UGA has a famous history of scientific and medical advancement, as well as recently updated infrastructure such as the completion of the Interdisciplinary Stem Research Complex. Some achievements of UGA grads or faculty include the development of mRNA vaccines, the invention of the Bradford assay technique, gene therapy for muscular dystrophy, and the Dalan Animal Health company which was noted in Times Magazine’s top 200 inventions of 2023 (Dalan). Furthermore, Morehead highlights that UGA receives the most National Institutes of Health funding of a public university in Georgia out of schools that do not have a medical school. Of course, because of the preliminary nature of the announcement, many questions are not yet answered: Where will the medical campus be? Will they add a “pre-medical” major? What is the tuition breakdown? And will they move current STEM teachers to the school of medicine? Nevertheless, it can be predicted that UGA’s reach in scientific research and in the Athens community will only increase after the establishment of their medical school.

Copy Editor – Jared Solovei

Photography Source – https://news.uga.edu/medical-partnership-expands-class-size-50-percent/