Lyon College will collaborate with the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences on the state's first dental school, announcing a memorandum of understanding Monday.
UAMS already offers a dental General Practice Residency, a postdoctoral educational program designed to provide essential skills, attitudes and abilities related to the contemporary practice of advanced general dentistry. But it does not have an actual dental school.
Under the memo of understanding, both Lyon College and UAMS will look to join forces where practicable, identifying opportunities for joint teaching, research, graduate education and professional development that benefit students and faculty.
[DENTAL SCHOOL: Read the memorandum of understanding » arkansasonline.com/118memo22]
The memo paves "the way for health improvement in Arkansas," Dr. Stephanie Gardner, UAMS senior vice chancellor for academic affairs and provost, said in a news release. "This partnership will ensure the highest-level programmatic achievement for the new Lyon College Institute of Health Sciences and fulfill UAMS' mission to improve the health and health care of Arkansas."
Arkansas Business first reported the news about the collaboration between Lyon College and UAMS.
Lyon College's Institute of Health Sciences will also include the state's first veterinary school.
Despite the state's substantial agricultural sector, Arkansas ranks 49th in the U.S. for veterinarians per population, with only 14 veterinarians per 100,000 people, according to veterinarians.org.
The state also fares poorly in dental health, ranking near the bottom for states. Arkansas had just 41.82 dentists per 100,000 people in 2019, ranked ahead only of Alabama, according to the national Library of Medicine.
Arkansas is one of only 14 states that do not have a dental school or college, according to listings from the Commission on Dental Accreditation.
"We are thrilled to work with the state's only academic medical center, UAMS, on collaborative efforts for our Institute of Health Sciences and the founding of Arkansas's first and only college of dentistry," Melissa Taverner, president of Lyon College, said in the news release. "This collaboration represents a partnership between two historic institutions dedicated to the health and education of Arkansas."
UAMS, the state's only health sciences university, is part of the University of Arkansas System, and more than 3,000 students are enrolled this fall. Lyon College, a private, liberal arts institution founded in 1872, is located in Batesville.
Lyon College will need to receive accreditation for the School of Oral Health and Dental Medicine, as well as for the veterinary school, and that process will ultimately determine when the planned Institute of Health Sciences will begin classes and how many students it can enroll, according to Taverner, but the goal is for students to begin classes in 2024 or 2025.
In May, officials announced that OneHealth Education Group, a partner in this endeavor with Lyon College, would purchase downtown Little Rock's Heifer International campus to house the veterinary and dental schools. Heifer opened the $17 million campus in 2006, and Heifer International will remain on the campus, leasing space from OneHealth.
Lyon College's fall head count dropped from 581 last year to 495 this year, although new student enrollment increased 12%, and the college continues to add programs in an effort to attract students and to provide qualified employees for professions with worker shortages, according to Carol Langston, director of college communications.
For example, in addition to the dental and veterinary colleges that aim to address the state's paucity of dentists and veterinarians, Lyon College plans to offer an RN to Bachelor of Science in nursing program and a Master of Arts in teaching next fall, as nurses and teachers are in demand locally and nationally.