Chapter 4

Foreign Veterinary Schools and Nursing Schools

In addition to the eligibility requirements discussed in Chapter 1 and Chapter 2, foreign veterinary schools and foreign nursing schools must comply with additional requirements to be eligible to participate in the Direct Loan Program.

Foreign Veterinary Schools

To be eligible to participate in the Direct Loan Program, a foreign veterinary school must be either a freestanding foreign institution or a component of a foreign university that has as its sole mission the providing of an educational program that leads to the degree of doctor of veterinary medicine or the equivalent. Both nonprofit and for-profit foreign veterinary schools may participate in the Direct Loan Program.

20 U.S.C. 1002(a)(2)(A), 34 CFR 600.56

34 CFR 600.52, 600.56(a)

34 CFR 600.56(a)

A foreign veterinary school is eligible to apply to participate in the Direct Loan Program if, in addition to satisfying the general eligibility criteria applicable to all foreign schools, it:

  • provides, and in the normal course requires its students to complete, a program of clinical and classroom veterinary instruction that is:

    • supervised closely by members of the school’s faculty, and provided in facilities adequately equipped and staffed, to afford students comprehensive clinical and classroom veterinary instruction through a training program for foreign veterinary students; and

    • approved by all veterinary licensing boards and evaluating bodies whose views are considered relevant by the Department;

  • has graduated classes during each of the two twelve-month periods immediately preceding the date the Department receives the school’s request for an eligibility determination;

  • employs for the program only those faculty members whose academic credentials are the equivalent of credentials required of faculty members teaching the same or similar courses at veterinary schools in the United States; and

  • effective July 1, 2015, foreign veterinary schools must be accredited or provisionally accredited by an organization acceptable to the Department for the purpose of evaluating veterinary programs to participate in the Direct Loan program. The Department’s Guidelines for Requesting an Acceptability Determination for a Foreign Veterinary Accrediting Agency is available at https://surveys.ope.ed.gov/erecognition/wwwroot/documents/Foreign_Vet_Agency_Guidelines.pdf

34 CFR 600.54(f)

NEW The list of veterinary organizations evaluated by the Department and the Department’s decision regarding the acceptability of the organization for purposes of evaluating veterinary programs for participation in the Direct Loan program are available at https://www.ed.gov/accreditation/search.aspx.

For a for-profit foreign veterinary school:

  • no portion of the program may be at what would be an undergraduate level in the United States; and

  • Direct Loan program eligibility does not extend to any undergraduate/graduate joint degree program.

Location of the Program

No portion of the foreign veterinary 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 veterinary school is located.

All participating foreign veterinary schools, regardless of institutional structure (public, private non-profit and for-profit), must provide a listing of all clinical training sites of their educational programs that have been approved by all veterinary licensing boards and evaluating bodies whose views are considered relevant by the Secretary. To be eligible for Direct Loan funds, U.S. students who attend a public or non-profit foreign veterinary school may complete clinical training portion of its program at an approved facility located inside or outside of the country in which its main campus is located, but U.S. students attending for-profit foreign veterinary schools must complete their clinical training at an approved veterinary school located in the United States.

Public or private nonprofit foreign veterinary school

34 CFR 600.56(b)(2)(ii)

U.S. students who attend a non-profit foreign veterinary school may complete their clinical training at an approved veterinary school located:

  • in the United States;

  • in the home country (i.e., the country in which the main campus of the foreign veterinary school is located); or

  • outside of the United States or the home country, if:

    • the location is included in the accreditation of a veterinary program accredited by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), or

    • no individual student takes more than two electives at the location and the combined length of the elective does not exceed eight weeks.

Foreign Nursing Schools

Both public and private nonprofit and for-profit foreign nursing schools may participate in the Direct Loan Program. To be eligible to participate in the Direct Loan Program, a foreign nursing school must be either a freestanding foreign institution or a component of a foreign university that is an associate degree school of nursing, a collegiate school of nursing, or a diploma school of nursing. These terms are defined as follows:

Associate degree school of nursing: A school that provides primarily or exclusively a two-year program of postsecondary education in professional nursing leading to a degree equivalent to an associate degree in the United States.

Collegiate school of nursing: A school that provides primarily or exclusively a minimum of a two-year program of postsecondary education in professional nursing leading to a degree equivalent to a bachelor of arts, bachelor of science, or bachelor of nursing in the United States, or to a degree equivalent to a graduate degree in nursing in the United States, and including advanced training related to the program of education provided by the school.

Diploma school of nursing: A school affiliated with a hospital or university, or an independent school, which provides primarily or exclusively a two-year program of postsecondary education in professional nursing leading to the equivalent of a diploma in the United States or to equivalent indicia that the program has been satisfactorily completed.

20 U.S.C. 1002(a)(2)(A), 34 CFR 600.57(a)

34 CFR 600.52, 600.57

34 CFR 600.57(a)

A foreign nursing school is eligible to apply to participate in the Direct Loan Program if, in addition to satisfying the general eligibility criteria applicable to all foreign schools:

  • the nursing school is an associate degree school of nursing, a collegiate school of nursing, or a diploma school of nursing;

  • the nursing school has an agreement with a hospital located in the United States or an accredited school of nursing located in the United States that requires students of the nursing school to complete the student’s clinical training at the hospital or accredited school of nursing;

  • the nursing school has an agreement with an accredited school of nursing located in the United States providing that students graduating from the nursing school located outside of the United States also receive a degree from the accredited school of nursing located in the United States;

  • the school provides (including under the agreements required for clinical training and the receipt of a degree from a U.S. nursing school) and in the normal course requires its students to complete, a program of clinical and classroom nursing instruction that is:

    • supervised closely by members of the school’s faculty, and provided in facilities adequately equipped and staffed to afford students comprehensive clinical and classroom nursing instruction, through a training program for foreign nursing students; and

    • approved by all nurse licensing boards and evaluating bodies whose views are considered relevant by the Department;

  • the nursing school certifies only Federal Direct Stafford Loan program loans or Federal Direct PLUS program loans for students attending the nursing school;

  • the nursing school reimburses the Department for the cost of any loan defaults for current and former students included in the calculation of the institution’s cohort default rate during the previous fiscal year;

  • the nursing school annually either:

    • obtains, at its own expense, all results achieved by students and graduates who are U.S. citizens, nationals, or eligible permanent residents on the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN), together with the dates the student has taken the examination, including any failed examinations, and provides such results to the Department; or

    • obtains a report or reports from the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSB), or an NCSB affiliate or NCSB contractor, reflecting the percentage of the school’s students and graduates taking the NCLEX-RN in the preceding year who received a passing score on the examination, or the data from which the percentage could be derived, and provides the report to the Department;

34 CFR 600.57(b) and (c) The cost of a loan default is the estimated future cost of collections on the defaulted loan. The Department continues to collect on the Direct Loan after a school reimburses the Department until the loan is paid in full or otherwise satisfied, or the loan account is closed out.

34 CFR 600.52 A passing score is the minimum passing score as defined by the NCLEX-RN.

  • the nursing school determines the consent requirements for and requires the necessary consents of all students accepted for admission who are U.S. citizens, nationals, or eligible permanent residents to enable the school to comply with the collection and submission requirements for NCLEX-RN data;

  • not less than 75 percent of the school’s students and graduates who are U.S. citizens, nationals, or eligible permanent residents who took the NCLEX-RN in the year preceding the year for which the institution is certifying a Federal Direct Stafford Loan or a Federal Direct PLUS Loan, passed the examination;

  • the school has graduated classes during each of the two twelve-month periods immediately preceding the date the Department receives the school’s request for an eligibility determination; and

  • the school employs only those faculty members whose academic credentials are the equivalent of credentials required of faculty members teaching the same or similar courses at nursing schools in the United States.

For a for-profit foreign nursing school:

  • no portion of the program may be at what would be an undergraduate level in the United States; and

  • Direct Loan program eligibility does not extend to any undergraduate/graduate joint degree program.

34 CFR 600.54(f)

34 CFR 600.57(d)]

All documentation must be submitted in electronic format via the secure Partner Eligibility and Oversight Services (PEOS) Document Center at https://cod.ed.gov/.

If the original supporting documents are not in English, certified English translations of the documents must be provided.

Location of the program

No portion of the foreign nursing program offered to U.S. students may be located outside of the country in which the main campus of the foreign nursing school is located, except for clinical sites located in the United States.

Protection of Personally Identifiable Information

Personally Identifiable Information (PII) being submitted to the Department must be protected. PII is any information about an individual which can be used to distinguish or trace an individual's identity (some examples are name, social security number, date and place of birth).

PII being submitted electronically or on media (e.g., CD-ROM, floppy disk, DVD) must be encrypted. The data must be submitted in a .zip file encrypted with Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) encryption (256-bit is preferred). The Department uses WinZip. However, files created with other encryption software are also acceptable, provided that they are compatible with WinZip (Version 9.0) and are encrypted with AES encryption. Zipped files using WinZip must be saved as Legacy compression (Zip 2.0 compatible).

The Department must receive an access password to view the encrypted information. The password must be e-mailed separately from the encrypted data. The password must be 12 characters in length and use three of the following: upper case letter, lower case letter, number, special character. A manifest must be included with the e-mail that lists the types of files being sent (a copy of the manifest must be retained by the sender).

Hard copy files and media containing PII must be:

  • sent via a shipping method that can be tracked with signature required upon delivery
  • double packaged in packaging that is approved by the shipping agent (FedEx, DHL, UPS, USPS)
  • labeled with both the "To" and "From" addresses on both the inner and outer packages
  • identified by a manifest included in the inner package that lists the types of files in the shipment (a copy of the manifest must be retained by the sender).

PII data cannot be sent via fax.

Last Modified: 09/16/2022 • Published: 03/28/2021