Student Loans: Millions Loaned Inappropriately to U.S. Nationals at
Foreign Medical Schools (Chapter Report, 01/21/94, GAO/HEHS-94-28).

Because the Education Department has failed to ensure that foreign
medical schools meet U.S. standards before letting them participate in
the student loan program, an estimated $118 million in loans between
1986 and 1991 went to students attending foreign medical schools whose
standards may be questionable.  This occurred for several reasons.
First, Education's standards for assessing these schools fall short.  In
particular, Education does little to assess the clinical training of
foreign medical students.  Second, Education has done little to enforce
the few standards it has in place.  Third, Education has no way of
preventing students who attend unapproved schools from receiving loans.
State medical boards cannot obtain information they need to evaluate the
education of foreign-trained doctors before licensing them, mainly
because of a lack of resources but also because schools refuse to
cooperate.  As a result, unqualified physicians may be entering the
mainstream of American medicine.  Many states have tried to compensate
for the lack of information on foreign schools by raising the
postgraduate training requirements for graduates of these schools.  At
the same time, foreign medical associations and other groups are putting
increasing pressures on states to treat these graduates the same as
their U.S.-trained counterparts.

--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------

 REPORTNUM:  HEHS-94-28
     TITLE:  Student Loans: Millions Loaned Inappropriately to U.S. 
             Nationals at Foreign Medical Schools
      DATE:  01/21/94
   SUBJECT:  Student loans
             Government guaranteed loans
             Medical education
             Medical schools
             Americans studying abroad
             Information disclosure
             Licenses
             Institution accreditation
IDENTIFIER:  Canada
             Dominican Republic
             Federal Family Education Loan Program
             Mexico
             Philippines
             Montserrat
             Dominica
             Italy
             Caribbean
             Guaranteed Student Loan Program
             
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