Christie Calls for Major Changes to NJ Higher Ed [VIDEO]

The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) Advisory Committee has released its final report and Governor Christie endorses it. He calls it, “A blueprint to achieve long-overdue reform of the State’s higher education system and usher in a new era for medical education throughout the State.”

The panel recommends a complete transformation of UMDNJ, refocusing the institution on its Newark-based schools and granting a significant level of autonomy to the institution’s most successful components. The panel also suggests that the school be renamed the New Jersey Health Sciences University.

For the future of University Hospital in Newark, the Committee recommends a long-term public-private partnership for the hospital’s management to allow for its continued role as a Level One Trauma Center and a hub of medical care for New Jersey and the Newark community, enabling continued high quality medical programs, increased efficiency in operations and investment in capital improvements in the future.

Another part of the plan is to fully integrate Rowan University and Rutgers University–Camden into a broader institution, known as Rowan University and based in Glassboro and Camden. Through this integration, the Committee recommends that this new institution be positioned for public research university status. The Committee found this change will both support the development of Rowan’s new medical school and provide an enhanced academic and health care education and delivery system that would bolster the regional economy.

“Ensuring that New Jersey’s higher education community delivers world-class medical education and training to students is a long-term imperative of our state that has been ignored for too long,” says Christie. “These recommendations finally provide an innovative and bold blueprint to transform the structure of our public medical and health science schools for a secure and successful future.”