Additional criteria for determining whether a foreign graduate medical school is eligible to apply to participate in the Direct Loan Program.
34 C.F.R. § 600.55
in effectEffective: 2024-07-01(a) General. (1) The Secretary considers a foreign graduate medical school to be eligible to apply to participate in the title IV, HEA programs if, in addition to satisfying the criteria of this part (except the criterion in § 600.54 that the institution be public or private nonprofit), the school satisfies the criteria of this section.
(2) A foreign graduate medical school must provide, and in the normal course require its students to complete, a program of clinical training and classroom medical instruction of not less than 32 months in length, that is supervised closely by members of the school's faculty and that—
(i) Is provided in facilities adequately equipped and staffed to afford students comprehensive clinical training and classroom medical instruction;
(ii) Is approved by all medical licensing boards and evaluating bodies whose views are considered relevant by the Secretary; and
(iii) As part of its clinical training, does not offer more than two electives consisting of no more than eight weeks per student at a site located in a foreign country other than the country in which the main campus is located or in the United States, unless that location is included in the accreditation of a medical program accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) or the American Osteopathic Association (AOA).
(3) A foreign graduate medical school must appoint for the program described in paragraph (a)(2) of this section only those faculty members whose academic credentials are the equivalent of credentials required of faculty members teaching the same or similar courses at medical schools in the United States.
(4) A foreign graduate medical school must have graduated classes during each of the two twelve-month periods immediately preceding the date the Secretary receives the school's request for an eligibility determination.
(b) Accreditation. A foreign graduate medical school must—
(1) Be approved by an accrediting body—
(i) That is legally authorized to evaluate the quality of graduate medical school educational programs and facilities in the country where the school is located; and
(ii) Whose standards of accreditation of graduate medical schools have been evaluated by the NCFMEA or its successor committee of medical experts and have been determined to be comparable to standards of accreditation applied to medical schools in the United States; or
(2) Be a public or private nonprofit educational institution that satisfies the requirements in § 600.4(a)(5)(i).
(c) Admission criteria. (1) A foreign graduate medical school having a post-baccalaureate/equivalent medical program must require students accepted for admission who are U.S. citizens, nationals, or permanent residents to have taken the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) and to have reported their scores to the foreign graduate medical school; and
(2) A foreign graduate medical school must determine the consent requirements for, and require the necessary consents of, all students accepted for admission for whom the school must report to enable the school to comply with the collection and submission requirements of paragraph (d) of this section.
(d) Collection and submission of data. (1) A foreign graduate medical school must obtain, at its own expense, and submit, by the date required by paragraph (d)(3) of this section—
(i) To its accrediting authority and, on request, to the Secretary, the scores on the MCAT or successor examination, of all students admitted during the preceding calendar year who are U.S. citizens, nationals, or eligible permanent residents, together with a statement of the number of times each student took the examination;
(ii) To its accrediting authority and, on request, to the Secretary, the percentage of students graduating during the preceding calendar year (including at least all graduates who are U.S. citizens, nationals, or eligible permanent residents) who obtain placement in an accredited U.S. medical residency program;
(iii) To the Secretary, except as provided for in paragraph (d)(2) of this section, all scores, disaggregated by step/test—i.e., Step 1, Step 2—Clinical Skills (Step 2-CS), and Step 2—Clinical Knowledge (Step 2-CK), or the successor examinations—and attempt, earned during the preceding calendar year by each student and graduate, on Step 1, Step 2-CS, and Step 2-CK, or the successor examinations, of the U.S. Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE), together with the dates the student has taken each test, including any failed tests;
(iv) To the Secretary, a statement of its citizenship rate for the preceding calendar year for a school that is subject to paragraph (f)(1)(i)(A) of this section, together with a description of the methodology used in deriving the rate that is acceptable to the Secretary.
(2) In lieu of submitting the information required in paragraph (d)(1)(iii) of this section to the Secretary, a foreign graduate medical school that is not subject to paragraph (f)(4) of this section may agree to allow the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) or other responsible third party to calculate the rate described in paragraph (f)(1)(ii) and (f)(3) of this section for the preceding calendar year and provide the rate directly to the Secretary on the school's behalf with a copy to the foreign graduate medical school, provided—
(i) The foreign graduate medical school has provided by April 30 to the Secretary written consent acceptable to the Secretary to reliance by the Secretary on the pass rate as calculated by the ECFMG or other responsible third party for purposes of determining compliance with paragraph (f)(1)(ii) and (f)(3) of this section for the preceding calendar year; and
(ii) The foreign graduate medical school agrees in its written consent that for the preceding calendar year the rate as calculated by the ECFMG or other designated third party will be conclusive for purposes of determining compliance with paragraph (f)(1)(ii) and (f)(3) of this section.
(3) A foreign graduate medical school must submit the data it collects in accordance with paragraph (d)(1) of this section no later than April 30 of each year, unless the Secretary specifies a different date through a notice in the Federal Register.
(e) Requirements for clinical training. (1)(i) A foreign graduate medical school must have—
(A) A formal affiliation agreement with any hospital or clinic at which all or a portion of the school's core clinical training or required clinical rotations are provided; and
(B) Either a formal affiliation agreement or other written arrangements with any hospital or clinic at which all or a portion of its clinical rotations that are not required are provided, except for those locations that are not used regularly, but instead are chosen by individual students who take no more than two electives at the location for no more than a total of eight weeks.
(ii) The agreements described in paragraph (e)(1)(i) of this section must state how the following will be addressed at each site—
(A) Maintenance of the school's standards;
(B) Appointment of faculty to the medical school staff;
(C) Design of the curriculum;
(D) Supervision of students;
(E) Evaluation of student performance; and
(F) Provision of liability insurance.
(2) A foreign graduate medical school must notify its accrediting body within one year of any material changes in—
(i) The educational programs, including changes in clinical training programs; and
(ii) The overseeing bodies and in the formal affiliation agreements with hospitals and clinics described in paragraph (e)(1)(i) of this section.
(f) Citizenship and USMLE pass rate percentages. (1)(i)(A) During the calendar year preceding the year for which any of the school's students seeks an title IV, HEA program loan, at least 60 percent of those enrolled as full-time regular students in the school and at least 60 percent of the school's most recent graduating class must have been persons who did not meet the citizenship and residency criteria contained in section 484(a)(5) of the HEA, 20 U.S.C. 1091(a)(5); or
(B) The school must have had a clinical training program approved by a State prior to January 1, 2008, and must continue to operate a clinical training program in at least one State that approves the program; and
(ii) Except as provided in paragraph (f)(4) of this section, for a foreign graduate medical school outside of Canada, for Step 1, Step 2-CS, and Step 2-CK, or the successor examinations, of the USMLE administered by the ECFMG, at least 75 percent of the school's students and graduates who took that step/test of the examination in the year preceding the year for which any of the school's students seeks a title IV, HEA program loan must have received a passing score on that step/test and are taking the step/test for the first time; or
(2)(i) The school must have had a clinical training program approved by a State as of January 1, 1992; and
(ii) The school must continue to operate a clinical training program in at least one State that approves the program.
(3) In performing the calculation required in paragraph (f)(1)(ii) of this section, a foreign graduate medical school shall—
(i) Include as a graduate each student who graduated from the school during the three years preceding the year for which the calculation is performed and who took that step/test for the first time in that year; and
(ii) Include students and graduates who take more than one step/test of the USMLE examination for the first time in the same year in the denominator for each of those steps/tests;
(4)(i) If the calculation described in paragraph (f)(1)(ii) of this section would result in any step/test pass rate based on fewer than eight students, a single pass rate for the school is determined instead based on the performance of the school's students and graduates on Step 1, Step 2-CS, and Step 2-CK combined;
(ii) If combining the results on all three step/tests as permitted in paragraph (f)(4)(i) of this section would result in a pass rate based on fewer than eight step/test results, the school is deemed to have no pass rate for that year and the results for the year are combined with each subsequent year until a pass rate based on at least eight step/test results is derived.
(g) Other criteria. (1) As part of establishing, publishing, and applying reasonable satisfactory academic progress standards, a foreign graduate medical school must include as a quantitative component a maximum timeframe in which a student must complete his or her educational program that must—
(i) Be no longer than 150 percent of the published length of the educational program measured in academic years, terms, credit hours attempted, clock hours completed, etc., as appropriate; and
(ii) Meet the requirements of § 668.16(e)(2)(ii)(B), (C) and (D).
(2) A foreign graduate medical school must document the educational remediation it provides to assist students in making satisfactory academic progress.
(3) A foreign graduate medical school must publish all the languages in which instruction is offered.
(h) Location of a program. (1) Except as provided in paragraph (h)(3)(ii) of this section, all portions of a graduate medical education program offered to U.S. students must be located in a country whose medical school accrediting standards are comparable to standards used in the United States, as determined by the NCFMEA, except for clinical training sites located in the United States.
(2) No portion of the graduate medical educational program offered to U.S. students, other than the clinical training portion of the program, may be located outside of the country in which the main campus of the foreign graduate medical school is located.
(3)(i) Except as provided in paragraph (h)(3)(ii) of this section, for any part of the clinical training portion of the educational program located in a foreign country other than the country in which the main campus is located or in the United States, in order for students attending the site to be eligible to borrow title IV, HEA program funds—
(A) The site must be located in an NCFMEA approved comparable foreign country;
(B) The institution's medical accrediting agency must have conducted an on-site evaluation and specifically approved the clinical training site; and
(C) Clinical instruction must be offered in conjunction with medical educational programs offered to students enrolled in accredited medical schools located in that approved foreign country.
(ii) A clinical training site located in a foreign country other than the country in which the main campus is located or in the United States is not required to meet the requirements of paragraph (h)(3)(i) of this section in order for students attending that site to be eligible to borrow title IV, HEA program funds if—
(A) The location is included in the accreditation of a medical program accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) or the American Osteopathic Association (AOA); or
(B) No individual student takes more than two electives at the location and the combined length of the electives does not exceed eight weeks.
Source: eCFRURL: https://www.ecfr.gov/api/versioner/v1/full/2024-07-01/title-34.xmlFetched: 7/26/2026