The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio

The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio began in 1959 when the Fifty-sixth Texas Legislature authorized a medical school, originally named South Texas Medical School. After heated debate a site on the periphery of the city, rather than downtown, was chosen. Construction of the school, located on 100 acres donated by the San Antonio Medical Foundation in the South Texas Medical Center complex in San Antonio, was not begun until 1966; it was completed in July 1968. Faculty was recruited as early as 1965, and students enrolled by 1966, but they attended classes in Dallas and Galveston until 1969. The first class in San Antonio had 104 students, and in 1970 the thirty-three students of the first graduating class received doctor of medicine degrees. A dental school was authorized by the Sixty-first Texas Legislature in 1969. The University of Texas Dental School at San Antonio began, using temporary facilities in the medical school, in September 1970. The first class had sixteen dental students, and its first graduation was held in June 1974. Separate facilities for the dental school on the same 100 acres were completed in 1975.

The science faculty of the medical school developed graduate programs in anatomy, biochemistry, biophysics, microbiology, and pharmacology. In 1970 graduate programs for the master of arts and the doctor of philosophy degrees in these fields were approved by the Coordinating Board, Texas College and University System (now the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board). Four years later physiology was added to the list. In 1972 the University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at San Antonio was established and assumed responsibility for the administration of these programs. Combined programs within the medical and dental schools allow a medical or dental student to obtain an M.A. or a Ph.D. degree in addition to an M.D. or a D.D.S. degree. The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio was also established in 1972 by the University of Texas Board of Regents. It was to be composed of the dental school, the graduate school of biomedical sciences, the medical school, and a school of allied health sciences. In 1969 the University of Texas School of Nursing at San Antonio was authorized by the Texas legislature; it offered a baccalaureate degree in nursing in 1970 and a master's degree in nursing in 1972. In 1976 the board of regents reorganized the system school of nursing, and the San Antonio School of Nursing was placed administratively within the health science center. A separate building for the school of nursing was completed in 1974. In July 1990 a Ph.D in nursing was approved by the Texas Higher Education Board to be offered at UTHSC–SA. The B.S.N. to Ph.D program is a partnership between the Texas Tech University Health Science Center School of Nursing in Lubbock and the UTHSC–SA School of Nursing. In 1993 nineteen students were enrolled in the program.