(Eagle News) — Medical students currently enrolled in selected eight state universities and colleges (SUC) who are offering courses in Medicine can now study for free, starting this school year.
Government will now pay for the tuition fees of these students, provided that they would have to give back to the country, by servingin tertiary government hospitals or in provincial and district hospitals, or by serving in the government’s “doctor to the barrios” program.
Commission on Higher Education (CHED) commissioner Prospero De Vera III said that the allocation of P317 million for some 2,000 enrolled medicine students in the identified eight SUCs are now available.
He said that the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) for this had already been signed last May 31.
“The P317 million tuition assistance for medicine students is unique because it provides for a return service agreement. So the students who apply will have to give back to the country as public service,” De Vera explained in a press briefing in Malacanang on Tuesday, June 20.
“For every year that they enjoy the tuition assistance, they have to stay in the country for one year. So it’s a one-to-one return service agreement,” he said.
The eight SUCs whose medical students will receive tuition assistance are the following:
1. Mariano Marcos State University in Ilocos Norte
2. University of Northern Philippines in Ilocos Sur
3. Cagayan State University in Region II
4. Bicol University in Region 5
5. University of the Philippines College of Medicine in Metro Manila
6. Mindanao State University in Iligan and Tawi-Tawi
7. West Visayas State University in Iloilo
8. UP School of Health Sciences in Leyte
This medical students’ tuition assistance has no income requirement. As long as you are enrolled in a medical school, you can apply for it. You apply for it because there is a return service agreement,” De Vera explained.
“Meaning you don’t want to do return service, then don’t avail of the tuition assistance coming from government,” he added.
