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The trajectories of UT Health San Antonio and UT San Antonio are strong and both institutions have unique and complementary strengths. Their educational and research programs do not compete with one another. In fact, their collaborations and unified programs are on the rise. Size and scale will bring considerable advantages to UTSA and UT Health San Antonio, enhance the other’s capabilities and potential, and significantly accelerate a path to elevate San Antonio’s standing as a global leader in academia, health and research. This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity can ultimately place the institution among the top public universities.

Integrating UT Health San Antonio and UTSA into a single premier university will add immeasurable value to San Antonio. By marshaling the full force of their complementary strengths as one, the unified institution will expand academic programs and joint degree programs to attract more students, accelerate groundbreaking research particularly around the intersection of health sciences with engineering, applied sciences, and data sciences, and expand healthcare services. It will help address the region’s burgeoning health needs, drive economic growth, advance innovation, draw new partnerships and turbocharge the university’s ability to compete with top national institutions and achieve its fullest potential to Texas as a premier global university.

Within the next several weeks, plans for the integration process and proposed timeline will be presented to the campus communities and will include early engagement through campus working groups and task forces. The individuals on these committees will provide valuable insights, data and ideas to best support the integration process through full completion. The universities will work together in the months ahead to prepare a prospectus — a plan that describes the processes and procedures to be used for merging. The plan will articulate the formal merger of two fully accredited, financially strong and well-respected institutions. The prospectus will require approval by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) and will be presented to the UT System Board of Regents by the Chancellor through ongoing updates.

Beginning in August 2024 with a request to SACSCOC to proceed with a prospectus, the university will plan to submit the prospectus by March 2025. If approved, the university will participate in a SACSCOC site visit next summer, and then may be considered “conditionally” merged by June 2025, while other operational areas across both campuses continue to integrate and SACSCOC continues its review. Additional site visits by SACSCOC, and the preparation of a final report in 2026, would make approval retroactive to June 2025. Along the way, the university will provide updates and reports to the Chancellor and Board of Regents and government agencies for all necessary authorizations. All accreditation requirements besides SACSCOC, such as those for CODA, CCNE and LCME will continue to be met.

For starters, merging the complementary programs will lead to:

• Expanding academic program offerings to attract more students and build a clear pathway from undergraduate to graduate programs for UTSA students, especially in the health sciences. It will also create more joint degree programs between academic and health professions, enhancing the potential for more joint STEM programs, and growing health-business programs beyond current MBA and executive leadership programs.
• Accelerating the research enterprise particularly around the intersection of basic health sciences with engineering, applied sciences and data sciences to build new collaborations with industry and government partners, including the military, and to increase the competitive edge to attract more grants and contracts to San Antonio.
• Amplifying the clinical enterprise to catalyze new collaborations between the unified institution, the new UT Health San Antonio Multispecialty and Research Hospital, and the broader county health system. UT Health San Antonio is also vital to the operation and success of the South Texas Medical Center, which serves 38 Texas counties.
• Bolstering the development of a skilled professional workforce in high-demand health and industry areas critical to the region and Texas and positioning the combined entities’ new integration to bolster the number of essential healthcare, business and technology professionals drawn to a city with a comprehensive academic and health center.
• Fostering more seamless collaboration among faculty in teaching, research, healthcare and service to facilitate maximum success in the classroom, lab and across the continuum of patient care.
• Multiplying technological advancements and commercialization in areas such as biomedical devices, healthy aging, precision therapeutics, brain health and more. Such therapeutic advances will also provide major economic development for San Antonio by driving education, employment and biopharmaceutical infrastructure.
• Producing greater data-driven healthcare to improve individualized diagnosis and treatment and enhanced application of precision medicine.
• Combining and accelerating fundraising appeal and success to present collaborative, not competitive, opportunities for donors, foundations and agencies.
• Positioning the university well for future growth to build upon success within the San Antonio and Texas R&D landscapes, including the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H Texas) hub and many San Antonio nonprofit research partners including Texas Biomedical Research Institute (TBRI) and Southwest Research Institute (SwRI).
• Achieving recognition as a premier global university alongside new peers nationally and globally, including the best comprehensive research universities that are composed of health sciences, engineering, data science and a full range of other disciplines. From the visual and performing arts to athletics, education, business, urban planning, behavioral sciences, medicine, and much more, this new comprehensive university plants a flag in San Antonio and Texas that will be recognized around the world.

The idea of merging UTSA and UT Health San Antonio was studied in 2002 and 2010. Today, the advancements of both institutions over the years have been positive and steep, and the value proposition has never been greater. Both institutions have experienced positive growth trajectories while the educational and health care landscapes have evolved. The current strategic environment—marked by increasing national competitiveness in research and a growing demand and advantage for integrated academic and health systems—presents a new, exciting case for integration. This new opportunity aligns with the need to ensure a world class university that will compete with top national peers.

There are many successful examples across the U.S. of universities where academic and health components have long existed as one institution or were integrated, resulting in strengthening the overall position as a global leading research university and medical center. Some of the top national universities with this structure include The University of Michigan, The University of California Los Angeles and The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The primary goal of this merger is to drive growth and enhance the institutions’ capabilities, not as a cost-cutting project. It is premature to speculate on job numbers at this time, but the primary focus is on expansion and innovation that will likely lead to the creation of new roles and opportunities. The collective aim is to foster an environment where talent can thrive, support new ventures, and contribute to overall success for those we serve, our city, Texas and the nation. The merger is designed to build on strengths currently situated at both institutions and position them for long-term growth.

The integration will be designed to create a cohesive and enriched educational environment including more joint academic and research programs, collaborations and expanded career paths to meet workforce needs.

It is too early to know specific details about the positive financial and specific measurable impact; however, the integration of UTSA and UT Health San Antonio is designed to grow the overall institution. Its goals will include attracting significant research funding and philanthropic support, bolstering federal grants and industry partnerships, expanding program offerings and services, improving efficient operations to support large-scale medical and scientific initiatives, reinforcing its status as a top-tier academic and health institution.

UTSA’s Athletics program, growing significantly in success and profile, will thrive even more post-merger with UT Health San Antonio. The merger will elevate UTSA’s profile, helping to further drive community engagement and regional and statewide pride in San Antonio. Enhanced visibility through athletics would continue to attract top talent, boost enrollment, and foster alumni support. The existing supportive relationship between UTSA Athletics and UT Health San Antonio would continue to flourish with access to all students to needed specialists and high-quality health care services. As such an important part of San Antonio’s collegiate culture and hometown pride, UTSA Athletics would also serve to unify and energize the community, reinforcing San Antonio’s status as a nationally leading urban hub and enhancing the overall impact of the newly integrated institution.

The University of Texas at San Antonio will be the overarching institution composed of all academic, research and health enterprises. UT Health San Antonio, as the academic health center, will be directly part of the university, with its powerful mission in health education, research and clinical care. Universities and their academic health centers often have intertwined missions. Keeping the brands together reflects this integration and facilitates a unified identity across these areas. More discussion on brand development will evolve in the months ahead, all aimed at maintaining a strong, integrated presence that supports the mission and enhances the university’s impact in education, health care and research.

The UT System Board of Regents will name Taylor Eighmy, President of UT San Antonio since 2017, to serve as president of the integrated institution.

A single university of this scale would immediately include 40,000 students, a workforce of 15,900 employees, including almost 4,000 faculty and 1,400 health care providers, $467M in research expenditures, a combined budget of $2.2B, an endowment of $1.1B, and more than $6B in direct economic impact. Job growth is expected to increase to meet the growing demands of this institution particularly in research, academia and clinical care.

This will be evaluated over the next year as a thoughtful and comprehensive integration plan is put together involving working groups composed of faculty, administrators, researchers, clinicians and staff from both institutions. Most of the programs at UTSA and UT Health San Antonio today are not competitive or duplicative but in fact are distinctive and complementary of one another.

With the integration of UT Health San Antonio and UTSA, there will not be a single main campus. Instead, each of the now six large locations within the campus network throughout San Antonio will retain its unique focus and mission, reflecting its specialized work and educational goals. This approach ensures that all campuses continue to excel in their respective areas—whether academic, research, patient care or community outreach—while benefiting from the new synergies created through integration. The strengths of each campus will be reflected to enhance the university’s overall impact and serve students, patients and communities more effectively. UTSA’s exciting downtown expansion efforts are also underway.

The UT System has a proven track record of successful institutional realignments and expansions, including the creation of The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and its medical school, the merger of UT Tyler with UT Health Science Center Tyler, the recent acquisition of Stephen F. Austin State University as a UT institution, the creation of a UT MD Anderson hospital and new UT Austin hospital on the UT Austin campus, and a recently announced planned expansion of UT Arlington into west Fort Worth.