Senators are pushing to regulate the admission of foreign medical students in state universities and colleges (SUCs) to prioritize more aspiring Filipino doctors and help increase the number of medical graduates who would serve in the country.
During the Senate Finance sub-committee D's hearing on the proposed 2021 budget of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Monday, chairman Prospero de Vera admitted that the agency has no power to limit the entry of foreign students in the public medical schools even if he personally wanted to impose such a rule.
"There are accusations that the foreign students are crowding out the local students in medical programs. Kung ako lang po masusunod, ang position ko dyan, 'pag state university ka, sa medical program, dapat ang estudyante mo Filipino lang (If it were up to me, my position is, state universities' medical programs should also only cater to Filipino students)," De Vera told senators.
"But those decisions are made by the board of regents of individual state universities, they are not made by the Commission. Because these are powers that are exclusive to SUCs' board of regents," he explained, citing the Republic Act No. 8292, or the Higher Education Modernization Act of 1997.
This surprised Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, who found the policy "a bit repulsive" especially that "we spend taxpayers' money to educate foreign medical students".
He then proposed to the Senate panel led by Sen. Pia Cayateno, to include in the 2021 budget a special provision "that the Board of Regents of the SUCs should not be allowed to admit foreign students because the SUCs are supported by taxpayers' money."
"Let them enroll in the private schools and pay the appropriate fees. To me, in public SUCs is really -- cannot be justified for whatever reason," Drilon said.
Senator Cynthia Villar supported Drilon's proposal, saying: "I don't really agree that we should educate the foreign students in our SUCs. We have limited capacity and we should give to the Filipinos, not the foreigners."
Asked by Cayetano, De Vera said that such admissions were, on the other hand, necessary in improving the international linkages of local universities.
The "only limitation", he said, is that SUCs cannot claim reimbursements for the tuition and miscellaneous fees of the foreign students under the RA 10931 or the free tertiary education law. He also said that some SUCs have already implemented Filipino-only policies in their medical programs.
But Drilon and Villar were not convinced that Filipinos were benefitting enough from these international linkages and that private entities and foundations -- not foreign governments or universities -- are the ones funding the studies of Filipinos abroad.
The minority leader also said such regulation must not only be applied to medical programs but to all courses offered by SUCs. The senators asked CHED to propose a provision that would consider existing factors on the admission of foreign students.
"I just cannot accept that foreign students will go into SUCs without any restriction, particularly in the areas where own Filipino students are struggling to get into, the field of medicine, for example," he said.
Senator Imee Marcos said there are about 26,000 foreign students currently in the country, citing data from the Bureau of Immigration. Marcos, as well as Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, also shared the concern of their colleagues.
The Senate recently passed on final reading the proposed "Doktor para sa Bayan Act" which seeks to offer medical scholarships for poor Filipino students and build more public medical schools in underserved regions of the country.