The Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine reported 184 graduates in May 2018, its highest preliminary graduation number.
In previous years, only the Athens campus had students graduating with degrees from HCOM, and 2018 was the first year that students at the Dublin campus had a graduating class.
“The students from the Dublin campus were rolled into the overall number of graduates because this was the overall fourth year for the Dublin kids,” John Schriner, the associate dean of admissions and student affairs for HCOM, said.
Because of HCOM’s accrediting organization, the Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation, the college is only allowed to accept a certain amount of students each year.
The first class of students at the Dublin campus enrolled in 2014 and graduated in 2018. The Cleveland campus accepted students in 2015, who will graduate in 2019. The Dublin campus expansion plan was approved in 2011 and the Cleveland campus in 2012.
For Fall Semester 2018, there were 208 HCOM students at the Dublin campus, 202 at the Cleveland campus and 572 student on the Athens campus—bringing the total of HCOM students to 982, Loralyn Taylor, the interim associate provost for institutional research, said in a email.
HCOM also realigned the number of students that each campus is allowed to accept. Now, the Athens campus will accept 120 students, opposed to 140. Dublin will have an increase, from 60 to 70 students accepted, and Cleveland will also have an increase from 50 to 60 students accepted.
The graduation number for HCOM will be at its highest in the Spring Semester 2019 when the Cleveland campus HCOM students graduate along with the Dublin and Athens students.
The Dublin and Cleveland campuses were able to provide HCOM due to their partnerships with Ohio Health Primary Care Physicians in Dublin and the Cleveland Clinic. Partnerships are required to have HCOM on regional campuses, making the expansion plan ”very strategic and very targeted,” Schriner said.
