UNC medical schools to expand enrollment

The UNC Board of Governors endorsed a plan by the state's two public medical schools to add students and create regional campuses to prepare for an expected doctor shortage. The plan calls for UNC-Chapel Hill to expand first-year enrollment at its medical school by 230 students in phases starting in 2009. The Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University would expand its first-year enrollment to 120. Also, UNC-CH would develop facilities in Charlotte and Asheville, where 70 students would complete their last two years of medical education. And ECU would expand opportunities for students to spend their third and fourth years in clinics in areas of Eastern North Carolina that need more doctors. The cumulative cost of the plan is expected to be about $450 million.