The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston

The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston was established by the University of Texas System Board of Regents in 1972 to administer several Houston-based UT biomedical and health-related units. The institution includes six schools and a number of special programs, centers, and institutes, all located in the Texas Medical Center. The Health Science Center schools include the Dental Branch, which began in 1905 as the Texas Dental College and joined the system in 1943; the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, begun in 1963; the School of Public Health, begun in 1967; the Medical School, begun in 1970; the School of Nursing, begun in 1972; and the School of Health Information Sciences, begun in 1973 as the School of Allied Health Sciences. An executive council, made up of deans and vice presidents, advises the president on policy that affects the institution's approximately 1,100 faculty members and more than 4,000 staff members. Through its six schools, the center is also affiliated with 196 area and state hospitals and facilities, the major Houston hospital affiliations being Hermann Hospital, Lyndon B. Johnson General Hospital, the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, St. Joseph Hospital, and the Memorial Healthcare System. The Harris County Psychiatric Center joined UT-Houston, as it is commonly called, in 1989. Center clinics treated more than 1,000,000 patients in 2000. In 1999 they provided more than $82 million in unreimbursed patient care to medically and financially indigent residents of Harris County.

The Health Science Center is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and carries additional accreditation for many of its individual programs. It has over 170 formal affiliations, including the Houston Community College System, King's College of the University of London, Rice University, Tel Aviv University, Texas Southern University, Prairie View A&M University, Tokyo Dental College, and the University of Houston. Though it offers primarily graduate-level training, the center also offers some undergraduate programs. International educational and research programs include those in China, Colombia, Egypt, England, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, Russia, and Zambia. UT-Houston grants professional degrees in biomedical research, health informatics, dentistry, medical technology, medicine, nursing, nutrition and dietetics, and public health. Certificates are awarded in dental hygiene and cytogenetics. The schools of health information sciences, dentistry, and nursing offer graduate and undergraduate education, and those of medicine, public health, and biomedical sciences provide only graduate work.