Senate Bill 77, which received bipartisan support in the General Assembly and was signed into law by Gov. Andy Beshear, allows the state's universities to seek approval to start professional and PhD programs.
Aaron Thompson, president of the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education, said the change will expand opportunities for people to get into medical and veterinary school.
"That provides a kind of opportunity to move into our rural areas, especially, to move in the hard to serve health care areas that we surely need more primary physicians to go in," Thompson explained.
Eastern Kentucky University wants to open a school of osteopathic medicine and aims to graduate its first class of physicians in 2034. Murray State University has been working to win approval to open a veterinary medicine school and got a boost last year when the legislature allocated $60 million to construct a new veterinary sciences building. Western Kentucky University wants to start research doctoral programs.
The Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education reviews a university's proposal and recommends to the Legislature whether it is viable and should be funded. Thompson added that the Council will play an active role in creating policies to determine eligibility.
"Once people apply, we'll ensure that all things are in place," Thompson outlined. "The funding will ensure that the quality of the program is maintained, which will ensure that they are on the path to getting accreditation."
Before submitting a proposal, the law requires a comprehensive university to demonstrate student success measures, such as having a first-to-second-year retention rate and a six-year graduation rate in the 75th percentile of all comprehensive universities nationwide and in the 80th percentile of all comprehensive universities within the Southern Regional Education Board.
