Skip to main content

Rx for success

Medical school gets the go-ahead to begin recruiting students A group of CMSRU staff members at a meeting.

As they seek the best education available to learn the science—and art—of practicing medicine, today’s aspiring doctors have a brand new option: Cooper Medical School of Rowan University (CMSRU).

On June 9, the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, the nationally recognized accrediting authority for medical education programs leading to the M.D. degree, granted preliminary accreditation to CMSRU.

The accreditation means that Cooper Medical School can now begin recruiting students for its inaugural class of 50 students for the fall 2012 semester. The preliminary accreditation is the third of a five-step LCME accreditation process. The process is complete when the first class graduates in 2016.

The preliminary accreditation came almost exactly two years to the week after officials at Rowan University and Cooper University Health System announced they were partnering to develop the medical school.

In March, the LCME Survey Team completed a four-day site visit, during which the team reported no deficiencies towards compliance with LCME standards. Such a finding is rare for LCME applicants, according to Founding Dean Paul Katz, M.D.

“We’re very pleased to receive the endorsement of the LCME and we’re looking forward to meeting our prospective students,” Katz said. “It’s time to bring this medical school to life.

“We have developed an innovative curriculum designed to challenge our students not only to be exemplary physicians, but also to lead us into the next generation of healthcare.”

The medical school’s leadership team will recruit a diverse group of CMSRU students, according to Katz. Cooper Medical School will be the first medical school in New Jersey in more than 30 years and the first four-year allopathic medical school in South Jersey.