The BOG Committee on educational planning, policies, and programs on their meeting on April 6 had a busy agenda. They discussed UNC medical school graduates and how to keep them to stay in the state and work in the rural areas; they passed ACT and SAT extensions, and approved several new academic degree programs.
A main concern of the board was getting medical students to practice more in rural areas in North Carolina.
The Director of the North Carolina Area Health Care Centers program, Dr. Hugh Tilson, and Dr. Hilary Campbell were invited to present the annual report on Primary Care Physicians and the study on NC Medical School graduates.
Tilson studied how many graduates from 2016 have actually stayed to complete their residency in NC and how many are in primary care and in high needs areas.
Medical schools included in the study were Campbell University, Duke University, East Carolina University, UNC Charlotte, and Wake Forest.
From the 2016 graduating class, there were 440 (100%) graduates. Of that 440 only 249 (57%) graduates were in primary care in 2016. As of 2021, there were only 60 (14%) graduates in NC still in primary care and only 6 (1%) of them were in rural NC.
“If we are giving students money to go to medical school, they should stay in the state for a certain amount of time,” Gov. Sonja Nicolas said.
To get medical students to stay in North Carolina, Dr. Tilson proposed that medical students have better access to healthcare and educational collaboration in rural areas to get students to work in the more distressed economies in North Carolina.
The Board of Governors proposed the idea of creating a tether to the state so more students would stay local and practice in areas where doctors are needed most.
The Board of Governors also discussed extending the emergency waiver of submitting ACT and SAT scores to universities for admission until Fall 2024.
“Not all content has been taught for standardized testing putting some students behind on preparation for standardized tests and the ACT and SAT,” Dr. van Noort, system vice president for academic affairs, said.
Van Noort added that students are still allowed to send in the ACT and SAT scores for consideration when applying, but it is not required. Governor Thom Goolsby asked why do this and what the importance of it was.
“Students are still experiencing learning disruptions from COVID-19, and not all content has been taught for standardized testing, putting some students behind on preparation for standardized tests and the ACT and SAT,” Van Noort said.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, students went to school through Zoom.
Goolsby was the only one to say nay for this extension.
Six universities got approval from the Board to add academic degree programs:
- Western Carolina University is addin a B.S. in Economic Analysis. This is an applied program and would be the first applied economics undergrad degree in the UNC school system.
- East Carolina University will establish the doctorate in Occupational Therapy the first in North Carolina.
- Appalachian State University will add M.S. in Occupational Therapy. This goes with the Appalachian State mission to address the lack of occupational therapists in rural and Western region of North Carolina.
- Fayetteville State University will add a B.S. in Public Health to address critical healthcare workforce needs in the region.
- UNC Charlotte got a B.A. in Interdisciplinary studies to allow students to explore two or more broad topics in a structured manner. Students are allowed to design their own unique degree.
- UNC Wilmington will add a Doctor of Philosophy in Pharmaceutical Chemistry. This will allow students to have in depth training in Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry.
When these programs will go into effect is unknown and the cost of bringing the programs to these universities is unknown.
Van Noort closed the meeting with information on the completion of the common numbering system and the program evaluation study.
Funds from Deloitte Consulting will go towards the program evaluation study to evaluate the cost of academic programs and return of investment for students and the cost of degrees.
