What some thought would be a seamless transition from ANU to the University of Belize School of Medicine was merely wishful thinking. Jaleeza Roberts looks beyond the horizon of the offshore medical school known as ANU:

7News first reported in January that ANU students had been left in limbo after American Northwest University stopped operating, leaving students uncertain about what would happen next: would their transcripts, their credits be accepted at another school-or was it years invested in study and thousands of dollars spent down the drain?

One student told 7News she had spent nearly three years at ANU, including tuition, rent, food, transportation, and utilities, only to face the prospect of starting over.

Dr. Lisa Johnson, Dean of the University of Belize School of Medicine, says the credits are not transferable to the University of Belize School of Medicine. The issue is compatibility.

Dr. Lisa Johnson, Dean, University of Belize School of Medicine
"The offshore medical school system that exists in this country is not for this country. The University of Belize is for this country. The University of Belize School of Medicine is for this country. I don't even want to waste the breath to talk about the offshore medical schools in Belize because their presence has not made it easy for us to establish ourselves, simply because the rest of the world sees us as a location for these types of institutions.

"Because that was not at any standard of a medical school. So that's the first thing-they can't. And we... I spoke to a number of those students and unfortunately we weren't... they were not in a position to be transferred to us. For many of them, we recommended that they apply for the pre-medical program in the Faculty of Science and Technology, and I don't know if they had the qualifications to get in to that. Some of them did, some of them had done some work already, but they needed to go back and complete the associates in pre-medical sciences."

So starting all over-but it raises the question of how students got to the point where they could spend years and substantial amounts of money pursuing a medical education at an institution which was-as Johnson put it-"not at any standard of a medical school." But yet it was still sanctioned by Belize's Ministry of Education.

And even after ANU's charter was not renewed in 2024, students and parents were left in the dark-they continued attending and paying.

Some were as far along as third year and some even took out student loans to afford tuition. At the time, we spoke with an anonymous student who said this:

Voice of: Anonymous
"I'm a bit frustrated and confused because I have nothing, no degree, you know. People my age have an associate's degree by now, but because I went straight to ANU, I have nothing. And then it's like I have to start over because they're telling us that no school will even accept the transcript, not that they even want to provide a transcript for us. So I always wanted to be a doctor. But because of this pushback, it has me thinking if I still want to pursue medicine because I really have to start over. That was like three years of my life. Well, I haven't completed the three years, but two years that I wasted."

The ANU students are therefore left confronting the grim reality that their time and money were wasted: no refund, no stepping stones to continue; they had invested in an educational dead end.

And that is precisely why the issue of chartering and oversight of offshore medical schools is brought into sharp focus.

In January, we asked the Minister of Education, who said he does not know on whose advice Belizeans were attending this school:

Reporter
"What would happen to these students who are mostly Belizean? We have at least one parent complaining to us that it's a waste of their time and money. Her daughter was going into her third year."

Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education
"Yeah, well, I mean, listen, I know one of the institutions has some students, has Belizean students. For the most part, all of the others have foreign nationals who are their students. These schools were really not set up for Belizeans. So, you know, I don't know when Belizeans started attending these schools and on whose advice they started attending these schools. We certainly provide no support to any students attending these schools, and that is the policy of the Ministry of Education. But yes, when these schools have a charter, there are certain obligations that come with that charter. And if those terms, the terms of the charter are being violated, we have a duty and responsibility to address it. And that's what we're doing."

While that correction comes too late for the impacted students, a critical question remains: Does Belize possess adequate regulatory safeguards to guarantee that medical institutions meet recognized standards of quality and transferability before they are permitted to market programs, recruit applicants, and collect tuition?

For the students stranded in the wake of ANU's collapse, the answer is an emphatic "no."

Jaleeza Roberts, 7News.

Students wanting to enroll in the UB School of Medicine can contact them via the UB website.