American University of Caribbean (AUC) School of Medicine Facilities.
PHILIPSBURG--Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport (ECYS) Melissa Gumbs on Thursday presented the framework for regulating medical education on St Maarten to Parliament’s ECYS Committee.
She highlighted a hybrid accreditation model designed to ensure quality while leveraging international expertise. American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine (AUC), the island’s sole medical educational institution, which offers the Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree, already operates under internationally recognised standards, providing a strong foundation for formal local recognition.
The framework, approved by the Minister in April 2024, aligns with Chapter 3 of the Higher Education Law, which shifts primary accountability for quality to institutional boards, sets a six-year accreditation cycle, and requires the government to formally designate recognised accreditation bodies rather than directly evaluating programmes.
Loss of accreditation triggers pupil protection obligations and public disclosure. For AUC, existing accreditation by the Accreditation Commission on Colleges of Medicine (ACCM) already meets these legal requirements, including a six-year validity cycle and regular two-year self-studies. The university most recently passed re-accreditation in November 2021 with zero findings, demonstrating ongoing accountability.
Under the hybrid model, the government assesses whether accrediting bodies such as ACCM meet governance, transparency, and quality standards, while the bodies themselves evaluate curriculum, faculty, facilities, and pupil outcomes against internationally recognised criteria. This approach avoids the need for costly local infrastructure while ensuring compliance with the law. ACCM’s evaluation under St Maarten’s proposed framework scored highly across six categories, including governance, quality assurance, transparency, and institutional relationships, making it a natural candidate for government recognition.
The framework also identifies the Caribbean Accreditation Authority for Education in Medicine and Other Health Professions (CAAM-HP) as a regional alternative, demonstrating that shared accreditation models across small island states are both viable and cost-effective. While CAAM-HP received slightly lower resource ratings than ACCM, it meets baseline criteria for accreditation and offers a complementary option for regional participation in quality assurance initiatives.
AUC has expressed support for the hybrid model, confirming willingness to collaborate with the government and adhere to ACCM standards for any new programs. The institution also emphasised transparency and engagement with faculty and pupils in accreditation processes, consistent with international best practices.
The Minister stressed that implementing a formal accreditation framework marks a significant step toward professionalising higher education on the island and ensuring that all institutions operate under clear legal and quality standards. She underscored that compliance with the Higher Education Law is non-negotiable and essential to protecting pupils and sustaining the credibility of medical education in Sint Maarten.
“As the Ministry continues to legislate and professionalise many areas in our education ecosystem that have gone unaddressed and unregulated for decades, it is also important to understand that the ways in which we have operated as a small island nation are no longer tenable if we intend to provide a viable future for our young people.
With the higher education ordinance in place, and the supervision of education ordinance on its way, persons and institutions, no matter what they promise or proclaim they can “do for us”, must be subjected to the laws of our land, regardless of who their local reps may be, she said. “Because if we don’t respect our laws, rules and regulations, we can never expect total strangers to do so either.”
