The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) will be giving at least P30 million starting grant to the Cebu Normal University-Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (CNU-VSMMC) after it was allowed to offer a new medical course program this coming academic year.

“I am announcing now that the Commission has already authorized the giving of the grant to CNU, maybe we can start with P25 to P30 million grant to give out so they can start and we will continue assisting our medical schools,” CHED Chairman Popoy De Vera said in an online presscon on Monday, May 24.

De Vera said that CHED will also make sure that the program is adequately funded - especially for the equipment. The grant, he added, will enable CNU to “jump start its acquisition of the necessary educational equipment for their medical program.”

Meanwhile, De Vera congratulated the CNU-VSMMC for the opening of the medical program effective Academic Year (AY) 2021-2022.

“The Commission always thought that it was a very good fit between a university that has showed itself to be an excellent teacher training institution because we expect the same level of excellence when it opens a medical program,” he said.

The VSMMC, he added, has also anchored healthcare in the region and has treated so many patients. “Therefore, it was a illogical partnership between the two,” he added.

Aside from De Vera, other attendees also include Unified Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education OIC-Executive Director Ryan Estevez, CHED-VII Regional Dir. Maximo Aljibe, Cebu Normal University President Filomena T. Dayagbil, CHED 7 coordinator on health-related profession programs and Education Supervisor II Dr. Jogi S. Rivamonte.

CNU-VSMMC will be accepting at least 50 students starting this upcoming AY.

On May 11, the CHED Commission En Banc granted approval of the CNU-VSMMC College of Medicine consortium to begin accepting students for the school year 2021-2022.

The CNU-VSMMC College of Medicine aims to train students with the potential but in need of support such as financial backing into physicians equipped with the knowledge, skills, and attitude in providing healthcare especially for the underserved.

De Vera noted that CNU-VSMMC College of Medicine aligns its program to Republic Act No. 11509 otherwise known as the “Doktor Para Sa Bayan” Act by providing government-subsidized medical education scholarship to deserving students with a return-service mechanism.

De Vera stressed that successful graduates will “return to their respective home communities or underserved areas and become public health physicians for four years at most as return-service.”

Both CNU and VSMMC are duly certified as ISO 9001:2015 compliant and are “at the forefront in research” - both locally and internationally.

De Vera also urged CNU-VSMMC to produce good graduates in the future. “We will not allow anything less, that is the expectation of the Commission,” he said.

Government, De Vera added, should set the benchmark for performance. “We expect very good performance from this partnership and whatever you need from the Commission, we will help you - that is our commitment,” he said.