University of Texas to open medical school in Austin

The University of Texas will open an Austin medical school in July nearly 135 years after the university was founded in the city.

The Austin American-Statesman reports (http://atxne.ws/28SDaWX ) the medical school aims to improve health care for Austin’s low-income residents and attract start-up companies and researchers.

The $310 million Dell Seton Medical Center at the University of Texas will be owned and operated by Seton, part of Ascension, the world’s largest Catholic health system.

The project took off in 2012 when Travis County voters approved raising Austin’s hospital district property taxes by $35 million a year to support the medical school.

When the university system was established in 1881, Texas voters decided the main university would be in Austin and the medical school in Galveston, then the largest Texas city.