About the Health Science Center
The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
is one of 15 components in The University of Texas System. The
university has four primary missions: education, research, patient care
and community service.
Located in the northwest section of San Antonio, UTHSCSA is composed of five schools: The Dental School (recently ranked as the top dental school in the nation), the Medical School, the School of Allied Health Sciences, the School of Nursing and the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.
UTHSCSA employs 1,342 full & part time faculty on a campus of approximately 2.1 million square feet with a fiscal 2000 budget of approximately $330 million. More than 2,700 students are enrolled in over 40 degree programs. The Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences has a current enrollment of 445 and about 225 postdoctoral fellows are currently undertaking postgraduate studies.
In addition to the main campus, research is also conducted at the University's Institute of Biotechnology (IBT), located in San Antonio's Texas Research Park. The South Texas Centers for Biology in Medicine also located in Texas Research Park is currently under construction as well as a new building for basic cancer research.
The first component of the Health Science Center was chartered as the South Texas Medical School in 1959. The Health Science Center is among
the nation's leading university research centers. Scientists conduct
major studies of diabetes, cancer, AIDS, stroke prevention, aging and
other areas while expanding knowledge of the basic biomedical sciences
and contributing to new drug development.
In the last legislative session, UTHSCSA received a $200 million dollar endowment to be used for pediatric cancer research. Research dollars to the Health Science Center have grown from $41 million 10 years ago to $105 million recently, and the university's endowment has grown from $9.7 million in 1989 to more than $44.5 million in the current fiscal year.
Amongst the other areas of prominence is the fact that: 1) The Howard Hughes Medical Institute selected the Medical School as one of 30 to receive funds aimed at sustaining critical research programs; 2) the Institute for Scientific Information ranks the university ninth in the nation for frequency of citations of its research by colleagues worldwide; 3) the Health Science Center is one of six sites in the world approved by the National Cancer Institute for patient trials of new cancer drugs; and 4) the Texas legislature appointed UTHSCSA to develop new Regional Area Health Centers (RAHCs) in South Texas. 5) UTHSCSA is one of five NIH funded Nathan Shock Centers for Aging.