Reunite Rutgers & Robert Wood Johnson Medical School

“Reuniting Rutgers with Robert Wood Johnson Medical School would create an academic powerhouse that would significantly enhance the quality of New Jersey education and would benefit residents across the entire state.”

Rutgers President Richard L. McCormick

Virtually all the best medical schools in the nation are affiliated with top research universities. Universities with a medical school are better positioned to bring research funding to the state, recruit the finest faculty and students, and capitalize on synergies across disciplines.

The task force report strongly supports reuniting Rutgers–New Brunswick with UMDNJ–Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (RWJMS) and UMDNJ–School of Public Health in New Brunswick and Piscataway. In response, Governor Christie issued an executive order creating a committee to further explore ways to improve medical education in New Jersey. The committee’s report is due September 1, 2011.

Reuniting Rutgers and Robert Wood Johnson Medical School would bring significant benefits to New Jersey:

Better recruit top faculty and students: A university that includes a medical school offers the rich academic environment, enhanced opportunities for interdisciplinary research, increased funding, and sophisticated equipment demanded by the finest researchers and most gifted students.

Attract increased federal research funding to New Jersey: Rutgers currently brings to New Jersey more federal research funding than any other university in the state. But we can do better. Reuniting Rutgers and RWJMS would propel New Jersey’s state university into the top ranks of all American universities in total research funding and increase its competitiveness for the largest federal grants.

Foster nationally acclaimed multidisciplinary projects: The synergies created when diverse disciplines work together are fundamental to scientific breakthroughs. Rutgers and RWJMS already have several productive partnerships: they jointly offer 12 graduate degree programs and partner in three major research centers. Their facilities are in close proximity to one another in both Piscataway and New Brunswick, and several faculty hold joint appointments.

Combining these two contiguous institutions under one administrative structure would promote increased collaboration and eliminate the difficulties of working across institutional lines.

Serve as a catalyst for developing new companies and creating jobs: Rutgers has been very successful in turning laboratory discoveries into real-world solutions with 80 licenses, options, and similar agreements executed in FY2010, but New Jersey needs increased technology transfer to launch new industries, create jobs, and fuel economic growth. Unifying the medical school’s resources in clinical studies and public health with Rutgers’ engineering, life science, computational science, and pharmaceutical programs would strengthen cooperation between Rutgers and core state health care industries.

Benefit New Jersey’s citizens: A unified institution with renowned faculty, enhanced multidisciplinary research, and increased funding would provide state residents with improved access to the best doctors, latest technologies, and promising clinical trials that offer hope for treating intractable diseases.