The Benedictine College School of Osteopathic Medicine, a proposed medical school, has been granted “Candidate Status” by the Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation (COCA), Benedictine College announced in a press release on September 21.
“Achieving Candidate Status is a significant milestone for Benedictine College. It reflects the dedication and hard work of many people who have helped bring this vision forward,” said founding dean Marla Golden, DO, MS, FACEP, in the release. “Our attention now turns to the next major step of achieving Pre-Accreditation Status.”
Benedictine College is located in Atchison, Kansas, and is recognised in the Cardinal Newman Society’s “Newman Guide” for its “commitment to a faithful Catholic education”.
With Candidate Status, the school can now move on to the next part of COCA’s accreditation process. In December, COCA will consider Benedictine College’s application for pre-accreditation, and the school is also seeking accreditation from the Higher Learning Commission.
If granted pre-accreditation status, the school will be able to recruit, admit and educate medical students, the press release explained.
With the School of Osteopathic Medicine, Benedictine College is seeking to “form physicians as healthcare missionaries who care for the underserved as a vocation of service and provide that service ministering to the needs of their patients,” Golden said in Monday’s press release.
The school will aim to “unite rigorous osteopathic medical education with Benedictine College’s Catholic intellectual and moral tradition” through its curriculum, the release said.
“We are creating an academically excellent medical school that is faithfully Catholic,” said Benedictine College president Stephen Minnis in the press release.
He continued: “If we don’t do it this way, it is not worth doing.”
Deacon Kevin Tulipana, DO, associate dean and director of mission at the School of Osteopathic Medicine, explained that creating a medical school that is faithfully Catholic will entail more than “requiring just one Catholic bioethics course”.
He continued: “Catholic bioethics will permeate the curriculum, which makes the hiring and formation of faculty and staff especially important.”
Benedictine College School of Osteopathic Medicine hopes to be granted pre-accreditation status by mid-2027, and aims to welcome its first students in the autumn of 2028.













