Contact: Will Sansom, 210-567-2579, sansom@uthscsa.edu
SAN ANTONIO (May 4, 2022) — More than 1,000 students — 807 in May and 224 this summer — have applied to graduate from The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, also referred to as UT Health San Antonio. The university’s institutional research office provided these preliminary figures.
“Amid the reports of high health care worker burnout during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is heartening to see each of these committed graduates moving out to serve society as physicians, nurses, dentists, scientists and health professionals,” said William L. Henrich, MD, MACP, president of UT Health San Antonio.
After conferring the May and summer degrees, UT Health San Antonio will have produced more than 41,100 graduates. “Most health care providers and scientists in South Texas have graduated from or work with our academic health center,” Dr. Henrich said.
Dr. Henrich will welcome graduates, parents, family, friends, and UT Health San Antonio faculty and staff to the Alamodome for the May all-schools commencement ceremony, which begins at 9 a.m. Saturday, May 21. The keynote speaker is Henry Cisneros, mayor of San Antonio in the 1980s and former secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
UT Health San Antonio will issue degrees and certificates to 369 Hispanic students and 54 Black students in May and the summer, preliminary data show. This is 41% of all graduates of the institution, spanning the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano School of Medicine, the School of Nursing, the School of Dentistry, the School of Health Professions and the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.
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“The university continues to produce health care providers who are culturally competent to serve the large Hispanic population of San Antonio and South Texas,” said Chiquita Collins, PhD, appointed by Dr. Henrich this year to serve as the inaugural, full-time vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion and chief diversity officer at UT Health San Antonio.
Designated as a Hispanic-Serving Institution by the U.S. Department of Education, UT Health San Antonio consistently ranks among the top schools in the nation for graduating Hispanic health care providers.
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Of the May and summer applicants for graduation, 62% (645) are women, further demonstrating the university’s diversity.
In addition to front-line physicians and nurses, UT Health San Antonio educates and trains a variety of professionals to serve society. The May and summer graduates are projected to include:
- 210 candidates for the Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree.
- 204 candidates for the Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree.
- 113 candidates for the Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) degree.
- 50 candidates for the Doctor of Nursing Practice degree.
- 46 candidates for the Master of Science in Respiratory Care degree.
- 42 candidates for the Certificate in Emergency Medicine Technology.
- 41 candidates for the Doctor of Occupational Therapy degree.
- 41 candidates for the Master of Science in Speech Language Pathology degree.
- 37 candidates for the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in several disciplines.
- 22 candidates for the Master of Science in Medical Laboratory Sciences degree (and nine candidates for the Bachelor of Science in Medical Laboratory Sciences degree).
- 16 candidates for the Bachelor of Science in Dental Hygiene degree (and one candidate for the Master of Science in Dental Hygiene degree).
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PhD and related degree programs provide expert scientists for San Antonio’s life sciences ecosystem. “UT Health San Antonio students have an opportunity to engage in basic and clinical research with more than 1,000 leading scientists and clinicians, better preparing them to be leaders in the health care and bioscience industry,” said Jennifer Potter, PhD, vice president for research at UT Health San Antonio.
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The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio) is a primary driver for San Antonio’s $42.4 billion health care and biosciences sector, the city’s largest economic generator. Driving substantial economic impact with its five professional schools, a diverse workforce of 7,200, an annual operating budget of more than $1 billion and a clinical practice that provides more than 2 million patient visits each year, UT Health San Antonio plans to add more than 1,500 higher-wage jobs over the next five years to serve San Antonio, Bexar County and South Texas. UT Health San Antonio is the largest research university in South Texas with an annual research portfolio of approximately $350 million.
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