THE UNIVERSITY

The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas (UT Southwestern) is a free standing health sciences university and a state university component of The University of Texas System. It was created in 1943 as Southwestern Medical College by the Southwestern Medical Foundation.

In the late forties, when The University of Texas System Board of Regents proposed that a new state medical school be created, leaders of Southwestern Medical Foundation offered Southwestern Medical College's equipment, library, and certain restricted funds to The University of Texas, provided that the university would locate its new school in Dallas. The Board of Regents accepted this offer by the Foundation, and in 1949, the college became Southwestern Medical School of The University of Texas.

In November 1972, the name and scope of the medical school were changed with its reorganization into The University of Texas Health Science Center at Dallas, consisting of three schools. In October 1987, the name was changed to The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.

UT Southwestern is comprised of three schools: Southwestern Medical School, Southwestern Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, and Southwestern Allied Health Sciences School.

The University of Texas Southwestern Medical School

Established in 1943, the Medical School is the primary unit of UT Southwestern. It is the largest of the university's schools with approximately 800 medical students, over 1,200 residents and postdoctoral fellows, and a full-time faculty of more than 800. In addition, there are approximately 2,000 volunteer clinical faculty, most of whom are practicing physicians in the community. Graduating doctors of the medical school consistently place at or near the top of U.S. medical school students in competitive national accrediting examinations. The central purpose of the medical school is to produce physicians who will be inspired to maintain lifelong medical scholarship and who will apply the knowledge gained in a responsible and humanistic manner to the care of patients. The medical school offers instructional programs not only in undergraduate medical education leading to the M.D. degree, but also graduate training in the form of residency positions and fellowships, as well as continuing education for practicing physicians and medical students. An important focus of the educational effort is training primary care physicians and preparing doctors who will practice in under-served areas of Texas. Another instructional role of the medical school is to fully prepare those medical students who seek a career in academic medicine and research, including the opportunity to earn both the M.D. and Ph.D. degrees simultaneously.

The University of Texas Southwestern Graduate School
of Biomedical Sciences

Graduate programs were initially established as part of the medical school's teaching program in the basic sciences. The first graduate degree was awarded in 1947. Formally established as a separate school in 1972, the graduate school has grown to encompass 12 programs in basic, behavioral, and applied sciences serving over 500 students. The graduate school provides qualified individuals seeking an M.A., M.S., or Ph.D. degree with the opportunity and the encouragement to investigate rigorously and be creative in solving significant problems in the biological, physical, and behavioral sciences. In addition to acquiring information in their area of expertise, graduate students are encouraged to develop and test new ideas in the classroom and to communicate their ideas to others within the research-oriented medical community. Although enrolled in a specific program, graduate students gain a wide perspective of contemporary biomedical science through interdisciplinary courses, seminars, and informal discussions involving scholastic interaction with students and faculty from other educational programs within the university.

The University of Texas Southwestern Allied Health Sciences School

In 1969, the School of Allied Health Professions began offering programs in Medical Technology, Physical Therapy, and Rehabilitation Science as part of the medical school. In 1972, it was designated as a component of UT Southwestern and its name was changed to the Allied Health Sciences School. The Allied Health Sciences School offers eight baccalaureate degree programs, two post-baccalaureate courses of study, a certificate program, and graduate programs in cooperation with the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. As an integral part of UT Southwestern, the allied health school works cooperatively in education, research, and service contexts. It prepares allied health professionals of the highest quality and competency to help meet health-care needs of the people of Texas. Through research and scholarly pursuits related to health-care, it advances scientific knowledge and practices of the allied health profession. It offers consultation, technical assistance, and professional services to meet education and health-care needs of the community. In addition, it contributes to the continued growth and development of allied health professions, including reduction of barriers to career advancement through pathways to graduate and post-graduate education. The allied health school views its community obligations as being important, and therefore, works actively to publicize career opportunities and respond in an appropriate manner to the requirements of health-care institutions, agencies, and service providers in the area.

UT Southwestern is independently ranked as one of the nation's top 10 medical schools. Among UT Southwestern's esteemed faculty are four Nobel Laureates, 10 National Academy of Sciences members, 13 members listed among the world's 1,000 "most cited" scientists, and 58 members listed in "Best Doctors in America." UT Southwestern ranks 23rd nationally in the number of National Institutes of Health grants awarded to medical schools and is one of 31 sites with National Institutes of Health approved Medical Scientist Training Programs granting the M.D. and Ph.D. degree simultaneously. It hosts a Howard Hughes Medical Institute research center.

More than 1,900 research projects totaling over $155 million a year are conducted on heart disease and stroke, cancer, diabetes, burns, arthritis, prematurity, magnetic resonance imaging, and on many other scientific fronts.

Since the late 1960s, the university has added more than 2.5 million square feet of building space, doubled the size of medical school classes and developed one of the largest biomedical graduate schools in the United States. UT Southwestern currently enrolls more than 2,800 medical, graduate, and allied health students, residents, and postdoctoral fellows. Graduating doctors consistently rank at or near the top of U.S. medical school classes in competitive examinations.

The 60-acre South Campus is the focus of a large medical complex including Parkland Health and Hospital System, Children's Medical Center of Dallas, St. Paul Medical Center, UTD Callier Center for Communications Disorders, Texas Woman's University Institute of Health Science, Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences, and City of Dallas Health Department. A map of the university complex may be found in the Appendix.

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation gave UT Southwestern 29.74 acres of land located at the northeast corner of Harry Hines Boulevard and Inwood Road. Now known as the North Campus, it is diagonally across that intersection from the northeast corner of the South Campus to which it is connected by an elevated shuttle busway/walkway. When all planned construction is completed, the North Campus will consist of more than 2 million square feet of new research and student facilities.

The Zale Lipshy University Hospital opened in November 1989. The 160-bed facility adjoins Parkland Memorial Hospital through the Charles Cameron Sprague Clinical Science Building. UT Southwestern operates the James W. Aston Ambulatory Care Center, a campus facility where faculty members see more than 180,000 outpatients each year on a referral basis. Another major affiliated institution, the Dallas Veterans Affairs Medical Center, is located in the Oak Cliff area of Dallas.

UT Southwestern maintains the largest family practice residency program in Texas and administers model health-care programs for women and children through its 11 Community Outpatient Clinics, strategically located in disadvantaged areas of Dallas County.