UVa-Wise signs collaborative agreement with University of Appalachia College of Pharmacy

Pictured left to right, Frank Kilgore, chair of the UACP Board, Edgar Gonzalez, dean and president of UACP, Gil Blackburn, UVa-Wise provost and senior vice chancellor

Qualified students at The University of Virginia’s College at Wise will receive preferential admission to the new University of Appalachia College of Pharmacy under the terms of the collaborative educational attainment agreement signed on July 5.


Under the collaborative agreement, UVa-Wise students who complete the College’s three-year pre-pharmacy curriculum and meet or exceed other admissions standards will receive preferential admission to UACP over applicants from schools without similar agreements.


The signing was a formal endorsement of an agreement previously approved by the UVa-Wise Board and the UACP Board. The agreement calls for UVa-Wise and UACP to “collaborate where feasible in pharmacy education and any other fields of study which will further their joint educational goals and improve the quality of life in the region.”


“This agreement facilitates the advance of health care in a region which has many unmet health care needs, and we believe that many of the graduates of the University of Appalachia School of Pharmacy will practice in the region,” said Gil Blackburn, provost and senior vice chancellor at UVa-Wise.


Each year, about 15 UVa-Wise students go on to pharmacy school, most at the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond. Representatives of UACP hope many of these students will choose to study closer to home.


“We know UVa-Wise has a very strong science program,” said Frank Kilgore, chair of the UACP Board and an alumnus of UVa-Wise. “We want to meet the needs of our local students. We believe we are duty-bound to give priority treatment to equally qualified students from the region.”


Located in Grundy, the University of Appalachia College of Pharmacy will open in August. It will be one of only three pharmacy schools in the nation offering an accelerated Pharm. D. degree with students graduating in three years rather than the traditional four years.


“UVa-Wise has meant so much to thousands and thousands of students from the coalfields and beyond,” Kilgore said. “With the addition of the pharmacy school in the region, we hope to keep more of the best and brightest at home.”


UACP Dean Edgar Gonzalez said the agreement will enhance the exchange of students between the two institutions. “What you’re seeing here today with the signing of this agreement is history in the making,” Gonzalez said.


More information about the University of Appalachia College of Pharmacy is available on the web at www.uacp.org.


The only branch campus of the University of Virginia, UVa-Wise is ranked among the nation’s top ten public liberal arts colleges by U.S. News and World Report. UVa-Wise is home to 1,800 students and offers under graduate and professional programs in the liberal arts tradition of Thomas Jefferson. Admission information is available at www.uvawise.edu.

To read the agreement signed by UVa-Wise and UACP click here (PDF)