Texas Border Business
UT medical school for Valley projected to have more than $1 billion annual economic benefit
The planned University of Texas medical school could eventually have an economic impact in the Rio Grande Valley of more than $1 billion a year, a figure based on a 1,000-student enrollment, according to an analysis by the Data and Information Systems Center (DISC) at the University of Texas-Pan American.
“The study takes into consideration the budget and the student enrollment of the existing medical schools in the UT System,” explained Mullapudi. “Other UT System medical schools on an average have 2,000 students in all programs.”
Valley medical school needed to help address statewide physician shortage
Even the inaugural class of 50 students in Edinburg, which will be housed in a $54 million medical education building scheduled to be built next to the University of Texas-Pan American, is certain to grow significantly sooner rather than later.
When that 1,000 student enrollment benchmark is reached, the Valley’s UT health science center, anchored by its medical school, will generate 9,263 direct jobs, 1,577 indirect jobs, and 1,466 induced jobs, representing a $256 million annual payroll, according to DISC.
