Health sciences, pharmacy programs set to launch.

• Position: Extraordinary EDUCATION

Who will meet the need for health care providers as 77 million aging baby boomers begin to retire? How will injuries and illnesses be treated in the future--or prevented before they occur?

The School of Health Sciences and the proposed School of Pharmacy at High Point University will prepare students for careers in rapidly-growing fields that answer these questions. Together, the schools will launch new graduate programs leading HPU through another cycle of prestigious growth. In turn, the programs will equip graduates to work in health-related fields expected to grow up to 39 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Health Sciences, which already houses undergraduate programs in exercise science and athletic training, proposes to offer graduate programs in physician assistant studies and physical therapy in a phased schedule starting 2015. The School of Pharmacy's inaugural class will arrive in 2016.

The two schools will be housed in a new, 170,000-square-foot building with an estimated cost of $60 million. The facility will be constructed on the main campus.

"We are currently in the process of working to ensure that the professional standards and requirements of SACS (our regional accrediting body) as well as those of ARC-PA (Physician Assistant), ACPE (Pharmacy), and CAPTE (Physical Therapy) are all in place," says Dr. Dennis Carroll, provost. "With already established undergraduate programs in biology, biochemistry...