Florida Tech in Melbourne announced Thursday a partnership with a four-year medical school. Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine will provide a pathway for Florida Tech students to become doctors. The chairman of the FIT board of trustees, Travis Proctor, spoke of the importance of the partnership:
“This relationship brings with it a much needed medical school to Florida. It brings Brevard County its first medical school. A critical resource when you consider that Florida will be short approximately 18,000 physicians by 2035.”
Florida Tech interim president Robert King talked about the impact the relationship will have:
“The notion of having all of these doctors here on this campus to collaborate with our researchers creates some remarkable opportunities, not just for the university, but for the global community.”
The president of Burrell College, John Hummer, talked nuts and bolts of the relationship:
“We’ll physically be on the campus, the L3Harris building is where we will be located. We will be doing a lot of renovations. The design that goes with a medical school will be done there. We will be able to utilize the library at Florida Tech, student housing, student dining, the health center, really how you can collaborate rather than duplicate resources.”
Burrell College will be accepting approximately 100 students per class on the Florida Tech campus in the year 2024. If a Florida Tech student takes the required courses and maintains a grade-point average, they will be guaranteed admission to the four-year medical school.