CHEd: Bulacan university’s medicine program still under review

FUTURE HOME The Bulacan State University’s College of Science campus in San Rafael town will house the College of Medicine once the program gets the approval of the Commission on Higher Education. —BULSU PHOTO

MALOLOS CITY—The Bulacan State University (BulSU) and the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) on Tuesday clarified an earlier report that the state university began accepting students for its planned College of Medicine (COM), which is still undergoing review from the government agency.

“The university will accept students only after its application for a license to operate has been secured from the [CHEd],” BulSU said in a statement sent to the Inquirer.

On Monday, BulSU president Cecilia Gascon said the COM will be opened under the university’s College of Science on its San Rafael campus but refuted on Tuesday an initial report by the Inquirer that the university opened classes to 50 medicine proper students during the first day of the 2023-2024 school year on Monday.

“We do hope that the clarification will dispel any undue confusion which might be inadvertently caused by the inaccurate statement,” BulSU said.

CHEd Chair Prospero de Vera III on Tuesday pointed out that BulSU still has no CHEd-approved Doctor of Medicine program and could not accept students this first semester of 2023-2024.

“The university can accept students only after the evaluation of their facilities, faculty, curriculum and training hospital, and upon approval of the CHEd commission en banc,” De Vera said in a statement.

He issued the clarification following the Inquirer’s report published on Aug. 14 which said that BulSU would welcome its first batch of students under the newly opened COM.

Ocular inspection

De Vera said an ocular inspection was conducted at BulSU on June 19 and the university was “given until July 31, 2023, to correct the noted deficiencies during the evaluation.”

He did not identify the deficiencies but he said BulSU had asked the CHEd’s regional office in Central Luzon to extend the submission of its compliance documents and was given until Aug. 11 to complete the requirements.

“The submitted compliance documents will still be referred to the Technical Panel for Medicine, the advisory arm of the commission, for their appropriate action and recommendation,” he added.

The commission stressed that higher education institutions are prohibited from admitting students without prior approval and authorization provided by CHEd. INQ

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