The University of Texas at San Antonio and UT Health San Antonio are merging, UT System announced on Thursday.
At a UT System Board of Regents meeting, the board unanimously voted to integrate the institutions by 2025, and intend to name UTSA President Taylor Eighmy as president of the new aligned university once it’s approved by accrediting entities.
The combined institution will be the third-largest research university in Texas with $470 million worth of annual research expenditures and six federally-funded research and development centers.
The UT System said it decided to merge the institutions “to fully leverage the individual contributions of UT Health San Antonio and UTSA,” both of which have made major contributions in health care, biosciences, national security and data science in San Antonio.
“Great cities and great universities make each other better. It is time to marshal the talent, size and scale of UTSA and UTHSA to multiply their roles as global leaders in education, health care, and innovation,” said Chairman of the UT System Board Kevin P. Eltife in a press release.
“By bringing together all of their complementary and unique strengths, we will give Texans access to the best education, discoveries and health care imaginable, while accelerating the university’s trajectory as a top U.S. and global university,” he said.
UT System has done this sort of realignment before with the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and its medical school and also with UT Tyler and UT Health Science Center Tyler.
In San Antonio, both institutions will make some changes to become one. According to the UT System, Eighmy and Acting President of UT Health San Antonio Rob Hromas will work with faculty, researchers, and administrators to serve on transition teams and groups to ensure accreditation and approvals, and streamlined, timely, strategic processes to operationalize the university.
UT Health San Antonio is the largest academic health research institution in South Texas, ranking top 3% globally for National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding. UTSA, a top tier (Carnegie R1) research institution, has 35,000 students across seven colleges and interdisciplinary schools.
The UT System expanded recently after acquiring Stephen F. Austin State University as a UT institution, and the new UT MD Anderson hospital in San Antonio, UT Austin hospital on UT Austin campus, and plans to expand UT Arlington into west Fort Worth.
Vice chairman of the Board of Regents for the UT System James C. “Rad” Weaver, who lives in San Antonio, called the move one of the most important and transformational steps the two UT institutions have made “for the long-term benefit of the city and state.”
“This merger is the catalyst that will supercharge our region as a national leader in learning, innovation, health, and economic vigor,” he said.
