MOUNT PLEASANT (AP) - Central Michigan University has received accreditation for the new medical school that’s set to receive its first class of future doctors next year, officials announced Wednesday.

University President George Ross said the Mount Pleasant university got word of the preliminary accreditation from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education.

“This is a significant milestone as we strive to create an innovative and highly successful program to help fill imminent needs for physicians and medical education opportunities in our state,” Ross said in a statement.

Central Michigan’s medical school is part of a movement to increase doctor education slots and institutions in Michigan in recent years in the face of a projected shortage of U.S.-trained doctors.

The University of Michigan, Michigan State, Wayne State and Oakland universities now have medical schools, and Western Michigan hopes to accept the first class at a new medical school in 2014. And Michigan State opened a medical campus in Grand Rapids in 2010.

Plans originally called for the school to accept its first class this fall, but officials say they postponed the opening last year “to provide sufficient time to fully prepare for the stringent accrediting process.”

“We remain committed to our goal of welcoming our first class in the summer of next year and now look forward to beginning the student recruitment process,” said the medical school’s dean, Ernest L. Yoder. “At the same time, we continue to recruit outstanding faculty and develop our curriculum” along lines set down by the accreditation committee.

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