BROWNSVILLE - Graduation ceremonies are just six years away for the first class of students from the Rio Grande Valley's long-awaited medical school, University of Texas Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa pledged Friday.

"The year 2018 will be a very special year for all of us," Cigarroa said at a news conference at the UT-Pan American in Edinburg, site of the medical research component of what's currently the three-campus Regional Academic Health Center.

As has been the case for hundreds of students since the gala opening of the center in Harlingen in 2002, future doctors will spend their first two academic years at the UT-Health Science Center at San Antonio and third and fourth years completing clinical training in the Valley.

The key difference is that students will, from the outset, have applied to a dedicated South Texas admission track. Hopes are high their diplomas will carry the University of Texas Health Science Center-South Texas name.

Independent school

While key questions remain - such as accreditation and funding for the estimated $40 million to $50 million in annual expenses - Cigarroa said that by then the center will have become a more independent entity.

"We are beginning the transition of the UT Health Science Center-San Antonio Regional Academic Health Center - known as the RAHC - into an independent, free-standing, comprehensive and research-intensive regional medical school, with its own president and structure, for South Texas," he said.

Plans for a full-fledged medical school for the Rio Grande Valley have been in the works since the early 1990s, when state Sen. Eddie Lucio, D-Brownsville, began documenting how the Valley's fast-growing and historically underserved region needed to better recruit physicians likely to commit to the area.

In addition to previous infrastructure investments by the Texas Legislature and UT System, the Legislature contributes about $11 million annually to support the RAHC's medical and research divisions. In 2011, UT Regents invested another $30 million for faculty recruitment, a clinical simulation facility, programs in obesity and diabetes and education in the sciences. In May, the regents endorsed new medical schools for Austin and South Texas.

"By committing to graduating students by 2018, UT has given everyone in South Texas reason to celebrate," Lucio said Friday. "I do see a lot of light at the end of the tunnel," he said. "For the first time, I feel confident we can accomplish our goals in the next five years."

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UT chancellor touts progress on Valley medical school