UT System breaks ground on a $60 million expansion of the UT Education and Research Center at Laredo
LAREDO, Texas — University of Texas System Chancellor John Zerwas, M.D., joined state and local leaders today to break ground on a $60 million expansion of The University of Texas Education and Research Center at Laredo. The new three-story, 56,000-square-foot multidisciplinary building will add classrooms, teaching labs and research space to keep pace with the center’s rapid growth. The UT System Board of Regents approved the project in 2025.
“With this new building, the UT System is doubling down on a commitment we’ve made to this community,” said Zerwas. “The Board of Regents is committed to expanding educational opportunity in the nation’s largest international port as we grow the local health care workforce.”
The UT System’s investment in Laredo began in 1993, when UT Health San Antonio began offering health professional degrees in fields such as nutrition and occupational therapy. In 2021, legislation enabled the UT System to create an expanded educational and health care education resource for the region. Since then, the Laredo Center has become the only place in Texas where students can earn degrees and certificates from four UT System institutions: UTHealth Houston, UT San Antonio, UT Rio Grande Valley and UT Medical Branch at Galveston.
The Laredo Center graduated its first cohorts in 2023 in social work (UTRGV), biomedical informatics (UTHealth Houston) and physician assistant studies (UT San Antonio). Those graduates are already helping meet critical health care needs in Laredo and across South Texas. However, enrollment and program growth have outpaced the center’s current footprint.
“The groundbreaking of this new facility marks a defining moment for the Laredo Center and for the future of our region,” said Adriana Nunemaker, Executive Director of the Laredo Center. “What we are celebrating today is not simply the expansion of a campus, but the expansion of opportunity.”
The new facility’s first and second floors will house classrooms, teaching labs and research space. The third floor will be left as shell space, providing room for future programs and signaling the Board’s long-term ambitions for the Laredo Center.
About The University of Texas System
With 13 institutions that enroll more than 270,000 students, the UT System is the largest university system in Texas and one of the largest public university systems in the United States. UT institutions awarded over 69,000 degrees and certificates last year, including more than one-third of the undergraduate degrees in Texas. UT institutions educate more than half of the state’s health care professionals with a four-year degree or above, including 56% of the state's medical degrees annually. The combined efforts of UT owned and affiliated hospitals and clinics resulted in nearly 11.7 million outpatient visits and more than 2 million hospital days in the last year reported. The UT System’s $5.2 billion research enterprise ranks No. 1 in Texas and No. 2 in the U.S. for research expenditures. With an operating budget of $36.6 billion for fiscal year 2026, UT institutions collectively employ more than 160,000 faculty, health care professionals, support staff and students.
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