Ecuador’s Government confirmed on Sunday that it is currently going through the process of obtaining recognition from the World Federation for Medical Education (WFME) to accredit its medical programs according to the standards required by Argentina, which identified irregularities in the medical residency entrance exams that may involve Ecuadorians.

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The Council for the Assurance of Higher Education Quality (Caces), the Ecuadorian state entity responsible for accrediting the 22 medical programs offered in the country, said in a statement that it has made all the necessary arrangements to obtain recognition as an evaluating body by the WFME.

“As a result, it has received the official response declaring it an eligible body,” the institution stated, clarifying that the medical programs accredited by them already meet “severe national and international technical standards.”

The eligibility phase with the international body was completed by Caces in February of this year, but a second phase is still pending, which involves a follow-up that WFME will conduct when the programs are re-evaluated, on a date yet to be specified, to verify compliance with its international standards.

The measure came after Argentina informed on Friday that, from now on, it will only validate foreign medical degrees that meet the WFME standard, following irregularities detected in the medical residency exam recently conducted in the country.

Argentina’s presidential spokesperson, Manuel Adorni, said in July that a new exam would be held for 268 applicants who scored more than 86 points in the test, as an investigation had detected “suspicious results” that were “inconsistent with the academic backgrounds of their universities and their career averages.”

He pointed out that there were scores higher than 85 and 90 obtained by students graduated from foreign universities, “whose students did not usually appear among the top 500 positions.” Nine doctors from the Technical University of Manabí in Ecuador were among the top 27.

It was later announced that only 117 people, most of whom held foreign degrees, would need to take a second test. According to Argentina’s Ministry of Human Capital, none of them managed to validate their previous scores.

The measure adopted by Argentina would currently prevent Ecuadorian university graduates from applying for medical residencies.

The Ecuadorian government rejected “any act of academic dishonesty” on Sunday, expressed a desire for the facts to be clarified, and called for “the necessary corrective actions to be taken to avoid affecting students and the Ecuadorian community” residing in Argentina. Additionally, it reiterated its willingness to engage in dialogue with Argentine authorities to “seek joint solutions.”

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