Higher education news: UK breaks ground on health education building, KCTCS partners with KSU
The University of Kentucky is moving forward with plans for what will become the largest academic building at UK, the new Health Education Building.
The building will be over 500,000 square feet, located between campus and the UK hospitals, and home to programs in four health colleges: medicine, public health, health sciences and nursing.
“The new Health Education Building is not just another structure on campus,” UK President Eli Capilouto said at the groundbreaking ceremony Friday. “It will be a hub of educational innovation, a catalyst for learning in collaboration. Within its walls, our brightest minds will become equipped to shape the future of health care and prevention at a time when we need them most.”
The new building will allow UK to admit more students into the College of Medicine and College of Nursing, meaning more doctors and nurses will be graduating from UK and entering health care, said Dr. Chipper Griffith, dean of the College of Medicine. With a predicted class size of 200 students per year, and more than 1,000 total medical students, UK would become one of the largest medical schools in the country, Griffith said.
“We have so many folks that need our care,” Griffith said Friday. “This is going to allow us to train more doctors, more nurses, more health practitioners, more public health providers. This is a game changer for the commonwealth.”
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UK College of Law updates
The dean of UK’s law school will be stepping down from the position and returning to a faculty role, Provost Robert DiPaola said in an email to faculty last week. Dean Mary Davis will continue in the role until June 30, and UK plans to form a search committee to fill the position.
“The search process will begin soon with the goal of the college’s next dean joining us by July 1, 2024,” DiPaola said.
In other College of Law news, the college ran into compliance issues earlier this year with one American Bar Association standard for accreditation. In August, the ABA ruled that the college was back in compliance and would remain accredited.
UK fell out of compliance because of one standard related to the college’s finances. The law school’s budget deficit, coming from major renovations to the college’s building in recent years and spending on scholarships, caused it to fall out of compliance with the finance standard, UK spokesperson Jay Blanton said at the time.
Accreditation is important because a lawyer has to have a degree from a law school approved by the ABA or the Association of American Law Schools in order to be admitted to the Kentucky Bar, according to the Kentucky Office of Bar Admissions.
The law school was given a timeline to address the compliance, and was originally scheduled to appear at the November ABA meeting, but the compliance issues were addressed before then.
“The University of Kentucky J. David Rosenberg College of Law remains an approved law school,” the ABA said in an August notice.
KCTCS, KSU announce transfer partnership
Kentucky State University and the Kentucky Community and Technical College System have signed a new transfer agreement, making it easier to transition from a community college to KSU.
Beginning in January, there will be 11 pathway transfer programs that will allow students to move from a KCTCS campus to KSU, including elementary education, nursing and criminal justice.
“This partnership is a testament to our commitment to providing quality education and workforce development opportunities for the people of Kentucky,” said Koffi Akakpo, president of KSU. “It reflects our dedication to enhancing the future of our students and the prosperity of our state.”
The schools expect to expand the partnership, adding more pathways and degree programs that will transfer.
“Roughly 50% of our students transfer on to a university such as Kentucky State to extend their educational journey and complete their baccalaureate, master’s or doctoral degrees,” said Larry Ferguson, interim KCTCS president. “We are very eager and pleased to be able to work even more in-depth with Dr. Akakpo and his team and Kentucky State University.”