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Texas Tech University plans to partner its Health Sciences Center with a future College of Veterinary Medicine. The motive to build a veterinary school is to provide more educational opportunities and educate future rural veterinarians.In 2015, 210 Texas students were accepted into a veterinary school and 127 of those students attended within the state. But due to the shortage of availability, 75 continued their education out of state. Currently Texas offers 132 students enrollment seats and plans to increase the seats to 162, below the national average of students becoming veterinarian professionals.In Texas, 30 percent of all veterinarians are 60 years old. In rural communities near Amarillo, 46 percent of the veterinarians are older than 60. Due to the age difference, Texas needs an additional 263 first-year students to meet the national average of professionals.The school's agenda is underway and since the college will be partnered with Health Sciences, some medical students will be able to work hands-on alongside the veterinary students.It will be the only veterinary school on the same campus as a pharmacy, said TTUHSC Chancellor Robert Duncan. It provides very unique opportunities for research.The college will be an expansion of the Health Sciences campus and will lie northwest from the current Health Sciences Center.The campus will have a classroom and officer building, as well as a clinical building that will be used temporarily to house different animal specimens as a teaching opportunity for the students, Duncan said. The animal herd will be kept at a location that will be close to campus but not exactly on that campus.The planning process for the veterinary college is in the early stages, but Texas Tech hopes to enroll 40 graduate students once the transition is approved by state legislators next year. The change would take effect in Fall 2019 and continue to increase enrollment each semester after.