Is Austin Unique in Having No Medical School?
A replacement for the 'ailing' Brackenridge hospital has been pitched as part of a medical school for Austin. Photo by Daniel Reese for KUT News.We all know that Austin is unique in many ways, but is it especially different for not having a medical school? KUT’s Emily Donahue spoke with Gardner Selby of PolitiFact Texas about the claim made in a mailer from the Austin Fund for Quality Healthcare.
The mailer read: “Austin is the biggest city in America with a Tier One research university (UT-Austin) but without a medical school.”
We granted that UT is a premier research university, and we know Austin lacks a medical school, though keep in mind the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine provides clinical training to third-and fourth-year medical students out of Round Rock.
Austin is the country’s 14th largest city by population. Ahead of it are San Jose, Calif., and Jacksonville, Fla., which happen to lack medical schools too.
Remember, the statement also said that each of the cities also had Tier One universities, meaning very high research intensity. And that label, we learned, is not applicable to institutions in San Jose or Jacksonville.
You can hear their whole conversation by clicking the player above.
