The University of Tennessee Health Science Center's College of Pharmacy is expanding its regional tuition rate program to pharmacy students living out of state within a 200-mile radius of the college's instructional sites in Memphis, Nashville, and Knoxville, effective for fall 2017.

Ranked number 17 in the country by U.S. News & World Report, the college will now be more accessible to students from parts of 13 surrounding states. They will pay only 25 percent of the differential between in-state and out-of-state tuition. The expansion brings the out-of-state tuition for students in the 200-mile radius more closely in line with tuition paid by in-state students.

"We want to expand our access as we continue to recruit the best and brightest students possible. We also want to continue to increase diversity in our student body," said UTHSC Pharmacy Dean Marie Chisholm-Burns, PharmD, MPH, MBA, FCCP, FASHP. "We believe this program helps us to do that."

The College of Pharmacy offers three campus options across the state for students to complete the Doctor of Pharmacy program. All students spend their first nine months on the Memphis campus, after which they have the option to transfer to the Nashville or Knoxville campuses for the remainder of their professional training.