Merger talks between Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) is terrific news. It has long been my opinion that the two should merge. BCM’s lack of brand is a huge obstacle to its future success. Save for fielding a nationally-ranked football team, BCM will never expand its reputation beyond biomedicine. Merging with Rice, however, would instantly give BCM a brand with worldwide recognition.
BCM has also become increasingly reliant on Rice to supplement its curriculum over the years as biomedical research has become more integrated with the other sciences. The combined curriculums of both schools would truly enable BCM to educate biomedical scientists for the 21st century. In turn, over the next fifty years, it is crucial that Rice be relevant in both nanotechnology and biotechnology. Rice is already producing world-class nanotechnology research. Merging with BCM would make Rice a world-class leader in biotechnology as well. And if Rice wants to be considered the “Harvard of the South,” acquiring a top ten medical school would certainly boost that reputation. Hence, the merger would simultaneously raise the prestige of both institutions.
Financially, combining BCM’s billion dollar endowment with Rice’s would rank the schools in the top ten of all university endowments giving the schools the financial resources to compete with the biggest institutions.
The big downside is that Rice would be saddled with a hospital that I think was ill-conceived to begin with. It’ll be interesting to see how that is resolved.
So that’s my opinion. What does everybody else think?
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I think it makes a lot of sense for both institutions. Rice needs a med school. Baylor, apparently, needs a sugar daddy. And a better brand wouldn’t help. Not only is BCM not well known (and it’s telling that Mayo is really the only big name on the list of unaffiliated med schools), but Baylor isn’t a great name to be attached to these days, either. There’s not much reason not to combine forces, but there will be many details to work out.
I was, however, under the impression that Rice was already in the top 10 for endowments.