THE UNIVERSITY of Southern Mindanao (USM) in Kabacan town, Cotabato province, has finally got the green light from the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to open up medicine program.
“We’ve got the clearance from CHED after our university passed CHED’s requirements to open up medical courses,” said Marcos Moderin, Dean of USM’s College of Arts and Social Sciences.
Monderin added that CHED clearance was given because the university is already complete with facilities, such as a hospital and laboratories.
Besides, he said USM has also been offering preparatory programs to medicine like Bachelor of Science in Nursing, Bachelor of Science in Biology, Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and Bachelor of Science in Nutrition and Dietetics.
USM’s consultant and member of the Technical Working Group for medicine program, Doctor Thad Aberilla, those who aspire for medicine program must comply with the requirements that includes passing the National Medicine Admission Test (NMAT).
Aspirants must also have general weighted average grade of 2.25 or 83 percent in their preparatory programs.
However, Aberilla stressed that they still don’t have the exact date for the opening of medicine programs as USM is still working on other needed documents, classrooms and additional equipment for the laboratories.