S. 3757 — Foreign Medical School Accountability Fairness Act of 2026

This section states the purpose of the Act, which is to establish consistent eligibility requirements for graduate medical schools operating outside the United States and Canada to increase accountability and protect U.S. students and taxpayer dollars.

This section declares congressional findings concerning for-profit Caribbean medical schools and their receipt of federal student aid under title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965. The findings are that (1) three such schools have historically received nearly three-quarters of all such funding for students at foreign graduate medical schools despite exemptions from standard eligibility requirements; (2) the National Committee on Foreign Medical Education and Accreditation and the Department of Education recommend uniform eligibility requirements for all foreign graduate medical schools; (3) attrition rates at U.S. medical schools averaged 3.2% from 1998 to 2018, compared to up to 30% at for-profit Caribbean medical schools; (4) in 2025, residency match rates averaged 67.8% for foreign-trained graduates, compared to 93.5% for U.S. allopathic medical school graduates and 92.6% for U.S. osteopathic medical school graduates; and (5) students at for-profit medical schools outside the United States and Canada accrue more debt on average than students at U.S. medical schools.

This section repeals grandfather provisions exempting certain foreign graduate medical schools from standard eligibility criteria to qualify as institutions of higher education for Direct Loans (part D of title IV of the Higher Education Act) by (1) revising those criteria in 20 U.S.C. 1002(a)(2)(A)(i) to strike the exception referencing the grandfather provisions, to change the cross-reference defining ineligible aliens from section 1091(a)(5) to 484(a)(5), and to change "subchapter IV" to "title IV"; and (2) adding new 20 U.S.C. 1002(a)(2)(B)(iii)(V) to terminate such grandfather authority effective the first July 1 following enactment of the Foreign Medical School Accountability Fairness Act of 2026. (As background, the standard criteria require at least 60% of enrolled students and graduates to be U.S. citizens or eligible noncitizens and at least 75% of students or graduates—U.S. nationals and others—to pass Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates exams in the prior year. Thus, affected schools must meet these criteria or lose Direct Loan eligibility.)

This section provides continued eligibility for Direct Loans (under part D of title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965) to students enrolled on or before enactment at a graduate medical school that loses such eligibility due to section 4, subject to satisfactory academic progress requirements, until the earliest of student withdrawal, program completion, or the fourth June 30 after the loss of eligibility.