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Greater
Richmond
Advantages
for Life Sciences
Higher
Education and Training
Greater
Richmond’s options in higher education include ten institutions awarding 7,300
degrees each year in a full range of disciplines and degree levels, as well as
strong evening and continuing education degree programs for working adults.
Virginia
Commonwealth University is
the region’s largest university and is located on two campuses in downtown Richmond. VCU enrolls 26,000 students in more than 170 undergraduate, graduate,
professional, doctoral and post-graduate certificate degree programs at 11
schools and one college. VCU was formed in 1968 through a merger of the Medical College of
Virginia (MCV), which dates from 1838, and Richmond Professional Institute. VCU is ranked by the Carnegie Foundation as one of the
nation's top research universities, currently ranked 99th among
colleges and universities in the country in attracting federal research
grants. U.S. News & World
Report has ranked 20 of VCU’s graduate and professional programs as
among the best of their kind in the nation.
University
of Richmond offers undergraduate
degree programs in Biology, Chemistry, and Physics, in addition to a Master of
Science in Biology.
Virginia
Union University offers
undergraduate degree programs in Biology and Chemistry and a special
pre-medical program.
Virginia
State University offers
undergraduate degree programs in Agriculture, Biology, Chemistry, Physics and
Master’s programs in Biology and Physics. VSU is one of Virginia’s two land-grant institutions,
with a 236-acre main campus and 416-acre research facility at Randolph Farm.
Randolph-Macon
College
offers undergraduate
degree programs in Biology, Chemistry, and Physics.
Randolph-Macon is a strong undergraduate liberal arts college
including pre-med pre-dental, and other health sciences programs.
J.
Sargeant Reynolds and John Tyler Community Colleges offer
AS and AAS degrees, certificate programs, and credit and non-credit classes in
a wide range of occupational and technical areas in the fields of
biotechnology and life sciences. John
Tyler
Community College
offers a Certificate Program in Biotechnology, which trains scientists in
biotechnology laboratory techniques used in research and development. The primary focus is a hands-on laboratory experience.
John
Tyler also has developed a Student
Apprenticeship Program for Certified Chemical Technicians in the chemical,
pharmaceutical, and biotechnology industries in cooperation with German-based
Boehringer Ingelheim Chemicals. The
program is based on a model German program and can be replicated for other
companies.
Petersburg
City
high school seniors
(pre-apprentices) take special courses to earn eight college credits and are
paid as temporary hires at Boehringer Ingelheim following high school
graduation. John Tyler student
apprentices follow a 40-credit, five-semester program. They receive paid tuition, books, and a salary while working part-time
in on-the-job training. Plus, they
may be eligible for a full-time position as a chemical technician with
Boehringer Ingelheim upon graduation.
The
community colleges also provide customized training programs for individual
companies; Work Keys job profiling and skills assessment; adult continuing
education classes; and workshops, conferences, and seminars.
GMP
A
custom-designed training program in GMP, good manufacturing practice,
including standards of manufacturing and quality control for pharmaceutical
products, can be designed for the company by the Virginia Department of
Business Assistance’s Workforce Services Program.
Programs can be implemented through the community college system
and/or private consultants. J. Sargeant
Reynolds
Community College
has experience in providing GMP
training for Wyeth-Ayerst. This
was an FDA-mandated program for production and office employees using FDA
tapes and guidelines.
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