MU cuts ribbon for its expanded Springfield med school campus 

It will soon be possible to attend all four years of medical school in Springfield, boosting opportunities for students and addressing Missouri’s physician shortage, officials say. 

In advance of the planned expansion to a four-year medical school in 2027, University of Missouri officials were in Springfield yesterday to cut the ribbon for its new campus site. 

MU representatives, including President Mun Choi, were joined by leaders from the city, Greene County, local universities, and CoxHealth and Mercy Springfield Communities for the ceremony at 3737 E. Battlefield Road.  

State Sen. Lincoln Hough, R-Springfield, was among guest speakers at the event. He said the impact of having a four-year medical school in Springfield will be everlasting for the city and southwest Missouri. It also serves as an example of what collaboration between communities, as well as the future of healthcare looks like.  

“A lot of people talk about how do we fix rural healthcare? How do we make those opportunities? How do we make a substantial difference in what that landscape looks like? You do it like this,” Hough said. “You do it through partnerships.” 

MU in November 2025 purchased the 77,000-square-foot building from Jack Henry & Associates Inc. (Nasdaq: JKHY) for $10.3 million that will serve as the new Springfield campus, according to a news release. The Columbia-based university is currently leasing 22,000 square feet in a building at 1845 S. National Ave. that has hosted the medical school since the program began local operations in 2016. 

The program provides education and clinical rotations through partnerships with CoxHealth and Mercy for third- and fourth-year students after two years of studying at MU’s Columbia campus. But with the program expansion, plans call for the full medical school curriculum to be offered to local students starting in summer 2027, according to past Springfield Business Journal reporting.  

Dr. Richard Barohn, MU’s executive vice chancellor for health affairs and dean of the School of Medicine, said the expansion is expected to boost opportunities for students to learn and work in Springfield amid a statewide shortage of physicians.  

“We know that one of the most effective ways to strengthen our physician workforce is to train more physicians right here in Springfield,” he said. “And time and again, we see that physicians and clinicians are far more likely to continue their careers and put down their roots in communities where they do their training.” 

Barohn said the campus expansion marks an important milestone for the program that has proven its viability in Springfield for the past decade. 

While MU has started moving operations to the Battlefield Road building, officials say renovations are set to begin this fall. Dr. David Haustein, associate dean at the Springfield clinical campus, said work is expected to begin in October and should finish by June 2027, just in time to welcome the inaugural class of first-year medical students.  

Renovation costs are still being finalized, officials say. Haustein said Paragon Architecture LLC is on board for the predesign and design phase, which he added is about to wrap up. A general contractor is yet to be selected, he said.  

Student growth 
The Springfield campus currently hosts up to 28 third-year and 28 fourth-year students each year, according to past reporting. That cohort size will grow to a capacity of 32 students next year, officials say. By the fall of 2030, MU projects the Springfield campus will have four classes of 32 students, totaling 128 people. Including the Columbia campus, total enrollment at the MU School of Medicine could be as many as 672 medical students.  

Curriculum will be comparable at the Springfield and Columbia campuses, officials say, and partnerships will continue with CoxHealth and Mercy to offer clinical rotations for its medical students, according to past reporting.  

Haustein said the launch of the Springfield campus a decade ago has already had an impact on MU medical school students returning to live and work in the Queen City.  

“About 40% of our 170 graduates are staying here in Missouri, and one in four of them are coming back to practice right here in Springfield and our surrounding communities,” he said. “That’s exactly what we hoped for and what our communities need.” 

Fourth-year medical student Nicole Walker said the smaller class size in Springfield facilitates camaraderie among the students and provides a lot of opportunities for hands-on learning. Walker said since arriving on campus, she has assisted in surgeries, helped deliver babies, participated in patient rounds – and seen more clinical patients than she could imagine. 

Walker also has developed mentoring relationships with faculty physicians and believes the new four-year medical school will provide myriad benefits. 

“There will be more students who stay in the area after they graduate,” she said. “There will be more research done on the Springfield population, and there will be a lot of teaching opportunities available in Springfield.”