CHAPEL HILL - The UNC Board of Governors today endorsed a plan by the state's two public medical schools to add students and create regional campuses.

The plan calls for UNC-Chapel Hill to expand first-year enrollment at its medical school from 160 to 230 students in phases starting in 2009. The Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University would expand its first-year enrollment from 73 to 120.

Also, UNC-CH would develop facilities in Charlotte and Asheville, where 70 students would complete their last two years of medical education. And ECU would expand opportunities for students to spend their third and fourth years in clinics in areas of Eastern North Carolina that need more doctors.

The cumulative cost of the plan is expected to be about $450 million, mostly going for new and renovated facilities. It would be phased in over the next 10 years.

The proposal would have to receive approval of the General Assembly before it could go into effect.

UNC officials said they developed the plan in response to an expected shortage of North Carolina doctors, especially in primary care.