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Given that there are several UH alumni (any Rice?) that post here I thought it would be interesting to get their take on this move by UT

http://www.mystatesman.com/news/news/st ... ffe/npLT5/

The University of Texas System’s plan to establish a campus in Houston is prompting questions about the need for such a venture, its cost and the inevitable competition with the University of Houston and other schools for students, faculty and philanthropic dollars.

UT Chancellor Bill McRaven, who came up with the plan, envisions an intellectual hub for education and research capitalizing on the energy, medical and other strengths of the state’s largest city. The system’s Board of Regents has authorized McRaven and his staff to purchase 332 acres of mostly undeveloped land in the southwestern part of the city.

Terrible move for Houston if it comes to fruition.

If this is a traditional four year university, like UTSA, it's not good for UH. I'm not sure this is particularly good for the state of TX either. It takes a long time to build up the reputation of a new university and it will drain resources from UH and some from other universities. UT-Dallas has done a fine job of moving up the rankings with a limited focus on science and business. UTSA and UT-A haven't been as successful as broadline universities.

ya, but UTD is still a commuter school. I have a feeling that anything they would build in houston would be more of the same.

smupony94 wrote:Terrible move for Houston if it comes to fruition.

Houston the university or Houston the city?

My understanding (live in Houston)

Is this is a 4 year, degree giving university, which will be focused on research, science, and medical. The only thing bad for UH is if they are hindered getting their medical school started. I am all for UH getting a medical school. Hopefully they can still do this and UTH can be the commuter school they are destined to be.

I see it being similar to UTD.

UTD has not been great for us either. It definitely siphons off resources. Just because it is commuter oriented doesn't mean it will have no effect. It will be competitive for sure.

I'm surprised really. HTere are limited state funds, and it seems to be there are lots of needs across the system bigger than this one. For example, there really is only one good school in the system (one and a half if you count A&M). i would argue they should be upgrading existing universities before they start redundant ones from scratch.

tristatecoog wrote:If this is a traditional four year university, like UTSA, it's not good for UH. I'm not sure this is particularly good for the state of TX either. It takes a long time to build up the reputation of a new university and it will drain resources from UH and some from other universities. UT-Dallas has done a fine job of moving up the rankings with a limited focus on science and business. UTSA and UT-A haven't been as successful as broadline universities.

If the UT system and Houston want a "premier" 4 year state school in the area, UT should annex UH. Building a new school from scratch would be wasteful.

SMUfrat wrote:My understanding (live in Houston)

Is this is a 4 year, degree giving university, which will be focused on research, science, and medical. The only thing bad for UH is if they are hindered getting their medical school started. I am all for UH getting a medical school. Hopefully they can still do this and UTH can be the commuter school they are destined to be.

I see it being similar to UTD.

UH doesn't need a medical school There are already three good medical schools in the area. If the state wants to build more state medical schools (probably a good idea), under served areas like Corpus and El Paso should be first on the list.

"I would argue they should be upgrading existing universities before they start redundant ones from scratch." Agreed. Texas is woefully behind California in strength of public U's.

UH's med school, to open in 2019, will focus on primary care vs. a bunch of specialties. The UH prez says primary care is the big need. As Digety said, it also seems like many areas of the state are underserved.

I'm not confident that UT would make UH more premier by annexing. UH's system chancellor is also the UH main campus president. There are other overlapping synergies between the UH and UT system but I don't see a UT-H adding enough prestige or resources. UT-D seems to be successful due to its focus on business and science and a lot of scholarships. Maybe just not having Div. I sports is saving them over $10 million per year.

tristatecoog wrote:UH's med school, to open in 2019, will focus on primary care vs. a bunch of specialties. The UH prez says primary care is the big need. As Digety said, it also seems like many areas of the state are underserved.

Primary care is a big need, the challenge is convincing people to take out hundreds of thousands in student loans for med school to become a primary care doc and make considerably less than doctors who specialize. It's easy to blame it all on Obamacare but primary care docs were getting hit hard by HMOs way before Obamacare was passed - and the AMA is probably the worst professional organization in America at advocacy

Digetydog wrote:

SMUfrat wrote:My understanding (live in Houston)

Is this is a 4 year, degree giving university, which will be focused on research, science, and medical. The only thing bad for UH is if they are hindered getting their medical school started. I am all for UH getting a medical school. Hopefully they can still do this and UTH can be the commuter school they are destined to be.

I see it being similar to UTD.

UH doesn't need a medical school There are already three good medical schools in the area. If the state wants to build more state medical schools (probably a good idea), under served areas like Corpus and El Paso should be first on the list.

El Paso already has Tech's medical school and I'm pretty sure someone else was building another there

RGV is in the first year of its med school which isn't corpus but has bigger, poorer undeserved population

tristatecoog wrote:"I would argue they should be upgrading existing universities before they start redundant ones from scratch." Agreed. Texas is woefully behind California in strength of public U's.

UH's med school, to open in 2019, will focus on primary care vs. a bunch of specialties. The UH prez says primary care is the big need. As Digety said, it also seems like many areas of the state are underserved.

I'm not confident that UT would make UH more premier by annexing. UH's system chancellor is also the UH main campus president. There are other overlapping synergies between the UH and UT system but I don't see a UT-H adding enough prestige or resources. UT-D seems to be successful due to its focus on business and science and a lot of scholarships. Maybe just not having Div. I sports is saving them over $10 million per year.

#HOGWASH - Any medical student who obtains his degree will be free to apply to any residency he/she wants.

RGV Pony wrote:RGV is in the first year of its med school which isn't corpus but has bigger, poorer undeserved population

???