AUSTIN (KXAN) -- On Monday, the University of Texas at San Antonio and the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio announced both institutions merged and are now known as The University of Texas at San Antonio, according to a news release from UTSA.
The merged institution "now ranks as the third-largest public research university in Texas according to annual research expenditures, behind only Texas A&M University and the University of Texas at Austin."
“We intentionally grounded UT San Antonio in excellence — excellence in education, healthcare, transdisciplinary research and discovery — to form a model public research university that is nimble, creative and unlike any other,” said UTSA President Taylor Eighmy in the release. “With that spirit of excellence, we’ve combined two distinguished Tier One institutions to form a new world-class university that champions social mobility, improves health and powers discovery to amplify our collective strengths and create impact at scale.”
The enterprise for UT San Antonio "now includes approximately 40,000 students, 17,000 employees and more than $486 million in annual research expenditures," the release said.
According to UTSA, UT San Antonio includes UT San Antonio Health Science Center, which is "ranked 84th out of 5,868 healthcare institutions around the world and 38th in the United States in the 2025 Nature Index of healthcare institutions for research output."
UT Health San Antonio currently sees more than 2.5 million patient visits annually, according to UTSA. Furthermore, it "educates and trains more than 1,015 residents, fellows, and trainees."
With combined capabilities with the merger, leaders with UT San Antonio "envision rapid development of hands-on learning opportunities and new degree programs."
“Synergies of expertise that come together allow us to innovate. That’s going to be available now to students, to faculty, to scientists, to graduate students across the spectrum of this new university,” said Francisco G. Cigarroa, MD, who serves as senior executive vice president for health affairs and health system of UT San Antonio. “A discovery that happens here, that improves the quality of life, not only improves the quality of life for our children or for our loved ones, but that translates to the population at large and it's going to have a global impact.”
UTSA said this merger "puts UT San Antonio on a very real path to becoming a premier institution with the characteristics of the elite members of the Association of American Universities."
