“Under current law, a small number of medical schools in the Caribbean–about five, four of which are for profits–are exempt from meeting the same requirements to qualify for title IV funding that all other medical schools outside of the U.S. and Canada must meet. This loophole allows these schools to enroll large percentages of American students–which means access to more Federal dollars”, complained Durban. Pictured here: The American University of the Caribbean.
On December 17, 2013 Senator Dick Durban asked for and was granted permission to address the United States Senate regarding what he calls a “loophole” being exploited by for profit schools.
“Mr. President, last week I introduced the Foreign Medical School Accountability Fairness Act. The bill seeks to fix a loophole exploited by for profit schools to tap into the federal Treasury at the expense of students.”
“Under current law, a small number of medical schools in the Caribbean–about five, four of which are for profits–are exempt from meeting the same requirements to qualify for title IV funding that all other medical schools outside of the U.S. and Canada must meet. This loophole allows these schools to enroll large percentages of American students–which means access to more Federal dollars’, he complained.
“The biggest of these schools are St. George’s, Ross, and American University of the Caribbean whose enrollments of Americans are 70 percent, 91 percent, and 86 percent respectively. Other schools are prohibited from having U.S. citizens make up more than 40 percent of enrollment”, he said.
“These for profit schools have turned the idea of being a foreign school on its head–they are located outside of the United States, but have majority-American enrollments. They do not have to meet the same high standards U.S. medical schools must meet, but also do not have to meet the same requirements as schools located outside of the U.S. to access hundreds of millions of dollars of Federal funding”, he said.
“Pretty sweet deal, huh?”, said Senator Durban (source: Congressional Record http://thomas.loc.gov).