MURRAY — The University of Kentucky College of Medicine plans to open a western campus in Murray with the goal of having students enrolled there in 2014.

College of Medicine Dean Emery Wilson says the extension campus at Murray State University will start up in 2012. Wilson told The Murray Ledger & Times that students in the program will attend school at the university's Lexington campus for their first two years of medical school and then transition to the campus in Murray for their third and fourth years.

The program is the result of a formal agreement with Murray State. UK has a similar arrangement at Morehead State University, where students are entering their second year of having students on campus.

Wilson says Kentucky is 2,300 physicians below the national average and that the deficit is especially high in rural areas.