For-profit medical schools in the Caribbean are 'shopping' for regulators in places like Kazakhstan just to dodge quality rules.
EdArXiv · March 17, 2026 · zqk7s_v2
The Takeaway
To stay eligible for U.S. student loans, these schools must be accredited by recognized agencies; when standards get too tough, schools simply switch to 'recognized' accreditors from the other side of the world. This creates a global race-to-the-bottom where medical schools with high debt and high dropout rates can effectively choose their own lenient supervisors.
From the abstract
For-profit, English-speaking Caribbean medical schools have enrolled thousands of U.S. citizens over the past fifty years. Successful graduates have gone on to make substantial contributions to the U.S. physician workforce. Unknown, however, is how many students have enrolled only to not complete their programs and been left with debt and no degree. The U.S. government first attempted to regulate quality in Caribbean medical schools when it established the National Committee on Foreign Medical E