The inaugural class of master’s degree students started this month at California Health Sciences University’s brand-new College of Biosciences and Health Professions.

More than 90% of the 16 students are interested in attending CHSU’s College of Osteopathic Medicine to become physicians, university spokeswoman Richele Kleiser said Friday.

At this point, all 16 are enrolled in the one-year master’s program, Kleiser said.

Enrollments in the new program have approval from both the WASC Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC) and Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education (BPPE), the university said.

CHSU, which was founded in 2012 to provide a local option for medical school, is accredited by the WASC Senior College and University Commission.

New College Debuts

The university announced in January the launch of the College of Biosciences and Health Professions, with two tracks for students interested in pursuing healthcare careers. A thesis is required for the two-year track, not the one-year track.

Students who complete the master’s program will be competitive candidates for medical school, other postgraduate health professional programs, and careers in education, research, pharmaceutical and biotech industries, and government, the university said in the January announcement.

The inaugural class is evenly divided between women and men, with 44% coming from the Central Valley and 69% from California, Kleiser said.

The university is “very pleased” with the first-year enrollment and hopes to grow the master’s program to 30 to 50 students in the future, she said.

Kleiser said she did not know how many additional students enrolled when the university extended the registration deadline by a month this summer.

Four Medical School Classes

CHSU’s College of Osteopathic Medicine now has more than 500 students in four classes on the campus, 25% of whom are from the Central Valley and 90% from California.

Next spring members of the Class of 2024 will learn where they have been matched for medical residencies.

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CHSU previously announced it was suspending its Doctor of Pharmacy program after the Class of 2024 due to a growing scarcity of pharmacy jobs and a continuing decline locally and nationwide in pharmacy school applications.

(Disclosure: GV Wire Publisher Darius Assemi and other family members founded and own California Health Sciences University, a private university in Clovis.)