What does it take to build a Top 20
public research university?

And what would that mean for Kentucky?

Envision a state with more bachelor degree holders than the national average, and with a workforce that can successfully compete for – and help create — the best-paying jobs. Imagine a healthier Kentucky, with reduced rates – below the national average – for cancer and heart disease. Dream about a state where our children, our best and brightest, can find opportunities here at home.

The simple fact is that states with Top 20 public research universities spend less on health care, have fewer people in poverty and have higher per capita incomes than those that states without Top 20 universities.

Investment in UK's Top 20 aspirations is an investment in Kentucky's future.

To reach the goal, though, UK's needs to maintain its progress through a sustained investment in its Top 20 Business Plan. With that goal in mind, UK is asking Governor Steve Beshear and the General Assembly to fund the following during the 2008 legislative session:

Increases of about $20 million in each of the next two years in state appropriations

Those funds will be used to hire more faculty, increase scholarships and financial aid, and expand research efforts that will result in more jobs and better health care for Kentucky.

$130 million in state bonds to begin work on the next  research building at UK's Medical Campus of the Future

When completed, more than $50 million in external research dollars will be generated annually for health care, bio-medical and life sciences research.

$75 million – matched by $25 million in private gifts – to construct a new Gatton College of Business and Economics complex

About 20 percent of all UK undergraduates are business majors and more than 80 percent of those students stay in Kentucky after they graduate. They are creating Kentucky's entrepreneurial economy. But the current Gatton College building is out-of-date and out of space, lacking the technology, classroom and faculty space of Top 20 business programs.

$20 million for the Livestock Disease Diagnostic Center

The center is a full service animal health diagnostic facility, charged with the diagnosis of animal diseases, and the performance of tests which safeguard the health of the animal population in Kentucky. With Kentucky's multi-billion dollar livestock and thoroughbred industry, and the 2010 World Equestrian Games on the horizon, a state-of-the art disease and diagnostic center has never been more important.

The General Assembly provided full funding this year. With those resources, UK has made undeniable progress:

For students …

• More than 200 faculty, a net increase of 60, were hired this year with the goal of lowering class sizes
• $35 million is being spent on UK's War on Attrition to improve graduation and retention rates among students and help lower the cost of a college education
• Nearly $3 million is being spent this year on new scholarship initiatives, much of it focused on Kentucky students with financial need
• More than $8 million is being spent to renovate and refurbish classroom and student living and learning spaces
• Record numbers of graduates and doctorates were awarded
• A graduation rate that is first among all public institutions in Kentucky

For Kentucky …

• A record $324 million in research expenditures were earned this past year, focused on health care and economic development
• More than 20 major capital projects are underway, for research aimed Kentucky's most pressing and intractable problems, including a new Pharmacy building that will address Kentucky’s shortage of pharmacists and the new $525 million Chandler Hospital that serves Kentucky with the best in advanced and specialty care.
• More than 25,000 patients were treated at Chandler Hospital last year alone from all 120 of Kentucky's counties
• An expanded Livestock Disease Diagnostic Center was initiated to support Kentucky's thoroughbred and livestock industries
• 24 initiatives – the Commonwealth Collaboratives – were created to attack Kentucky's most pressing problems, from obesity among schoolchildren to insidiously high cancer rates
• Nearly 6 million contacts were made by UK Cooperative Extension Agents during the 2006 fiscal year
• A $22 million federal grant is being utilized to narrow the math-science achievement gap in 38 Eastern Kentucky school districts
• The UK College of Dentistry continued providing dental care to those in need across Kentucky. Over the past 25 years, more than 250,000 Kentuckians have been served.