Dive Brief:
- The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will get $10 million toward the Jump Simulation Center, which will give students a place to design and practice with medical devices, use simulation tools, work on bio-printing and gain familiarity with other technologies.
- The donation is from Chicago-based financial technology firm Jump Trading and will help support what UIUC officials are calling the first medical school of its kind, one that marries clinical medicine and engineering throughout a student’s entire training.
- The new center will help break down academia’s traditional silos, giving engineers and medical students a chance to work side-by-side on the field’s most pressing problems.
Dive Insight:
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign announced the new medical school in March. It is the university’s first new college in 60 years and will open with corporate and personal donations that will circumvent the need for additional state funding. The Carle-Illinois College of Medicine will get substantial backing from Carle Health System, which has pledged $100 million over the college's first 10 years.
In Illinois, Governor Bruce Rauner initially proposed slashing the state's higher education budget by 31.5%. Legislators, who are still locked in a budget standoff that held an initial deadline of the end of May, approved a budget that had an 8.6% cut to higher ed but Rauner vetoed it last week. The state's fiscal year starts July 1 and budget uncertainty has already caused the University of Illinois to suspend certain programs.