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OU-Tulsa, ORU Sign Agreement To Benefit Allied Health Students In Tulsa
The universities are working to meet the needs of students in allied health-related fields, in undergraduate degrees such as communication sciences and disorders, nutritional sciences, and radiologic technology; graduate students in occupational therapy; and doctoral students in physical therapy. Students from the OU Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City will also benefit from this new collaboration.
"Student and employer demand make these health science programs a priority for our universities," said OU-Tulsa President Gerard Clancy, M.D. "This agreement with ORU will ease a student's transition between undergraduate and graduate degrees, and enable us to train more qualified health care professionals to serve the Tulsa area."
The health sciences programs at ORU provide students with a general education as well as a science foundation through specialty courses. OU-Tulsa offers the graduate degrees these students are required to have to become licensed practitioners in their chosen fields.
"Partnering with OU-Tulsa will be a great opportunity for area students interested in a health profession to get an excellent undergraduate and graduate education without leaving Tulsa," said ORU President Richard Roberts. "This joint effort between our institutions will play a vital role in the health, both physically and economically, of the region."
Students will now be able to design a plan based on their educational needs – making the transition to a graduate or doctoral degree program easier.
"This collaboration is a wonderful step for Tulsa and northeastern Oklahoma. Our universities offer great educational opportunities for these future health care professionals, and the OU College of Allied Health is proud to work with Oral Roberts University to create more opportunities for students," said Kevin Rudeen, Ph.D., the dean of the OU College of Allied Health.
OU-Tulsa and ORU also work together in other areas. Kent Teague, Ph.D., an assistant professor in OU-Tulsa's department of surgery, has an ongoing relationship with faculty at ORU. Teague lectures in ORU's immunology course, and this summer, will be sponsoring the research of Caroline O'Farrell, Ph.D., an assistant professor of biology at ORU. O'Farrell will act as the principal investigator while using the surgery labs at OU-Tulsa.
The University of Oklahoma Schusterman Center is home to all OU programs in Tulsa. Located at 41st and Yale, the campus allows OU to provide educational, research and patient care programs for the community. The OU-Tulsa Schusterman Center currently offers four bachelor's degree completion programs, 15 master's programs, a doctor of medicine degree, nine residency programs in medicine, and a doctor of pharmacy degree. For more information about OU-Tulsa, call (918) 660-3000 or visit http://tulsa.ou.edu.
