CUNY School of Medicine to become independent medical college
The City University of New York’s School of Medicine will become a freestanding medical institution in the coming months – a move that leaders hope will expand program offerings and student enrollment.
The School of Medicine, currently housed within CUNY’s undergraduate education system, will spin out to become an independent institution by the end of this year, said Dr. Carmen Renée Green, dean of the school. The deal, approved by the board of trustees in June, will shift the medical school under the CUNY Graduate Center, allowing it to offer additional residency and doctoral programs.
CUNY’s medical school has long offered a program to new undergrads allowing them to earn their bachelor’s and medical doctorate degrees in seven years. The new independent accreditation will continue offering this program, but also open up the pipeline for traditional four-year medical students – a shift they hope will attract new talent, Green said.
It will also open up opportunities to expand programs. Green said that the institution plans to pursue a joint MD/PhD program offering in the coming years.
CUNY’s aim is to enhance diversity in New York’s physician workforce. More than 80% of medical students nationwide come from high-income families, data shows, resulting in a shortage of physicians from communities of color and low-income households.
“That fundamentally, is a disconnect between the patient and the health care provider,” Green said.
CUNY’s student population bucks that trend. More than 80% of its students come from low-income households and speak more than one language. And three-quarters choose to stay in New York to practice after graduation, offering a pipeline of diverse physicians to treat patients across the five boroughs, Green added.
City College of New York founded its medical school – previously known as the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education – in 1973 to recruit doctors from underrepresented communities and buoy the primary care workforce. That school became the CUNY School of Medicine in 2016, which has graduated a total of 2,700 people.
The move to become an independent medical college comes as the institution has attracted grant funding from the state and federal government. The National Institutes of Health granted $19 million to CUNY last month to build a health equity center to reduce racial disparities in health and recruit minority populations for biomedical research. The School of Medicine also received $4 million in the most recent state budget – the first budget line item it has received to date.
Green said that she hopes that the state will continue to offer funding to the School of Medicine, which is largely tuition-dependent and will remain so after becoming a freestanding institution. Annual tuition at the school this year is more than $41,000.
