Changes in the process for the validation of foreign degrees are announced

After the controversy over suspicious results from foreigners in medical residency exams, the Ministry of Human Capital stated that, from now on, "direct validations will only be granted to those degrees that have accredited the quality standard awarded by the World Federation for Medical Education."

The announcement comes in the context of an investigation promoted by the Ministry of Health, headed by Mario Lugones, which showed determination to review questionable results and solved that candidates must retake the exam.

In fact, none of the 117 doctors summoned to retake the exam were able to validate their scores.

Not only that, the Government of Javier Milei is even considering the possibility of deporting 133 foreigners, 109 who did not validate their scores and 24 who did not appear, who entered the country as tourists to take the National Medical Residency Exam, but who did not properly declare the purpose of their visit, in addition to the irregularities and fraud detected in the exam.

Statement from the Ministry of Human Capital

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Human Capital announced a change in the validation of foreign degrees.

"Today, the National Ministry of Health released the results of the score validation for the National Residency Exam that certain candidates suspected of fraud were required to take. The conclusion of this stage was clear: none of the 117 individuals managed to validate the scores obtained in the first part. 109 of them held validated degrees from foreign universities," the statement said.

"In light of the above, the Undersecretariat of University Policies of the Ministry of Human Capital will implement a deep change in the process of validating foreign degrees."

"From now on, direct validations will only be granted to those degrees that have accredited the quality standard awarded by the World Federation for Medical Education (WFME, for its acronym in English). This endorsement is held by both Argentine degrees and those from countries such as the United States, Spain, Italy, and Germany, among others," the ministry stated.

"This is an act of justice for students who, through great effort, obtain their degrees by overcoming the enormous academic demands required by medicine and choose our universities. We're not going to continue recognizing as equal a degree that is not," it added.

It also indicated that "by making the validation of degrees conditional on recognition by the World Federation for Medical Education, access to the residency exam is limited to universities that accredit quality assurance processes equivalent to those in force in Argentina, so that all medical professionals, whether national or with validated degrees, meet the same academic and training requirements."