JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) — Missouri Southern State University has abandoned plans for a dental school to operate in partnership with the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
Missouri Southern President Alan Marble announced Thursday that the schools jointly decided to drop the project because state funding was minimal. The universities requested state money to fund the project in fiscal year 2017, but most of the funding was withheld and hasn’t been available since then.
The recent decision could lead the Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences to pursue a dental program of its own. KCU had announced in June that it would consider creating a College of Dental Medicine in the Joplin area, if the MSSU-UMKC collaboration didn’t receive funding.
KCU already launched a feasibility study for the project.