The largest graduate-level physical and occupational therapy school in the country is planting its fifth campus in Las Colinas. The University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences announced the news this week. The new campus will have enough capacity to hold 700 students and 70 faculty positions. It will start out at 30,000 square feet, with expected additions bringing the total space up to 50,000 square feet over the next decade.
USAHS has a campus in Austin, as well as San Marcos, California; St. Augustine, Florida; and Miami, Florida.
The Dallas campus will be at the Riverside Commons complex in Irving-Las Colinas. It’ll open in the summer of 2019, starting with a Doctor of Occupational Therapy program, and add a Master of Science in Speech and Language Pathology and then a Doctor of Physical Therapy program.
A spokesperson for the school says the plans call for the school to surpass the 700-student and 70-faculty marks within the first 10 years. Year one will see 80 students supported by 24 full-time faculty.
Across its various campuses, USAHS offers degree programs in physical therapy, occupational therapy, nursing, education, and health science. Its physical and occupational therapy programs have more than 6,000 alumni.
The Dallas-Fort Worth campus will include classroom, laboratory, and administrative space. USAHS has more than 1,000 clinical partner sites throughout Texas, with 353 of those located in DFW, the spokesperson says. Those numbers are expected to grow as the Dallas campus gets up and running.
“Texas is one of the fastest-growing states in the nation; combined with an aging population, the demand for healthcare services in Texas and the greater DFW area will be remarkable,” said Dr. Thomas Werner, program director for the Dallas campus. “The impact of this shortage will be profound if there are not enough licensed, practice-ready professionals prepared to meet this growing demand in next decade.”
