Universities and health systems across the country are announcing new medical schools and expansions as demand for physicians grows.
Below are 10 new medical schools or campuses announced in 2026.
Editor’s note: This list is updated throughout the year. Please send your news releases to m.taylor@beckershealthcare.com to be included in the list.
1. Philadelphia-based Thomas Jefferson University plans to establish a four-year regional campus of Sidney Kimmel Medical College in Allentown, Pa. It comes weeks after the university was selected to establish Delaware’s first four-year medical school. The inaugural class of 45 students will begin in July 2029.
2. Stockton, Calif.-based University of the Pacific is opening a $150 million medical school. The Pacific School of Medicine will be California’s first MD-granting institution outside of the state’s largest population centers. The first cohort of students will be welcomed in fall 2030, pending accreditation approval, and the school is expected to grow to 400 students by 2037.
3. Sacramento, Calif.-based Sutter Health and Santa Clara (Calif.) University plan to launch the Mark & Mary Stevens School of Medicine in the San Francisco Bay Area. The medical school is funded in part by a $175 million gift from Mark and Mary Stevens. It will be the first new medical school in the San Francisco Bay Area offering Doctor of Medicine degrees in more than a century.
4. Philadelphia-based Temple University’s Lewis Katz School of Medicine and Atlantic City, N.J.-based AtlantiCare will establish a regional medical school campus. The AtlantiCare Campus will host 40 medical students and is expected to accommodate third- and fourth-year rotating students. The first class of students will start in August 2029.
5. Redding, Calif.-based Simpson University is moving forward with a planned $150 million medical school. It will open in 2030 and have a graduating class of 150 to 200 students.
6. Columbia-based University of Missouri School of Medicine is expanding its Springfield campus into a four-year regional medical school. The new medical school, which will open in summer 2027, will be hosted in a building the university purchased in November 2025. The first cohort will have 32 students, and the school is expected to host a total of 128 students at full capacity.
7. Mishawaka, Ind.-based Franciscan Alliance, a nonprofit Catholic healthcare system, is planning to build an osteopathic medical school in Crown Point, Ind. The school is expected to open in 2030 and enroll up to 200 students each year. The system will also increase the number of post-graduate residency slots by more than 250.
8. Harrogate, Tenn.-based Lincoln Memorial University is opening a medical school campus in Orange Park, Fla. The new LMU-DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine campus will be the first four-year medical school in the Jacksonville area. This is the university’s first campus outside of Tennessee. The inaugural cohort will start later this year.
9. Athens-based University of Georgia will establish a new independent School of Medicine. The UGA School of Medicine will build on the success of the Augusta University/University of Georgia Medical Partnership, and is seeking accreditation from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education.
10. Miami-based Larkin University is seeking accreditation for a new College of Osteopathic Medicine. The Jacqueline Nicole Michel College of Osteopathic Medicine is built in a collaboration between the university and Larkin Health system. It is projected to encompass approximately 110,000 square feet and is expected to open in fall 2028.
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