By: Omar Silva I Editor/Publisher

 National Perspective Belize

www.nationalperspectivebz.com

Belize City: 8th January 2026

In June 2024, the charter for American Northwest University School of Medicine quietly expired.

There was no public advisory.

-No press release.

-No student-wide notice.

-No freeze on enrolment announced to the public.

Yet months later, Belizean students were still attending—or believing they were attending—a medical school that, by the Ministry of Education’s own admission, no longer had legal authorization to operate.

By January 2026, the gates were locked, classrooms abandoned, staff unpaid, transcripts withheld, and dozens of aspiring doctors stranded in academic limbo.

This investigation is not about rumour.

• It is not about personalities.
• It is about process, duty, and failure.

Because when a medical school collapses, the question is not only who ran it—

but who was watching, who knew, and who failed to act in time.

I. What a Charter Means — And Why Its Expiry Is Not a Technicality

A charter is not a courtesy letter.

It is not symbolic.

It is the legal foundation upon which a tertiary institution stands.

Without a valid charter:

• an institution cannot lawfully operate,
• cannot enroll students,
• cannot collect tuition,
• cannot promise degrees,
• cannot represent itself as recognized by the State.

The Ministry of Education has confirmed publicly that:

• ANU’s charter expired in June 2024, and
• it was not renewed because the institution failed to meet required terms and conditions.

That single fact changes everything.

From that moment onward, every day of continued operation—formal or informal—became a governance failure waiting to surface.

II. The Timeline That Refuses to Add Up

Here is what is known—and what remains dangerously unclear.

What is confirmed

• The charter expired in June 2024.
• The Ministry attempted to work with the institution toward compliance.
• Renewal did not occur.
• The institution eventually ceased operations.
• Students were left without transcripts, refunds, or clarity.

What has not been publicly explained

• When the institution was first notified that renewal was in jeopardy.
• Whether students were informed—and if so, when.
• Whether enrollment continued after June 2024.
• Whether tuition was collected after the charter expired.
• What enforcement action, if any, occurred between June 2024 and January 2026.
• Why no public advisory was issued during that 18-month window.

This gap—between expiration and exposure—is the heart of the scandal.

Because regulation does not fail loudly.

It fails quietly.

And students pay the price.

III. “We Are Working With the Students” — After the Damage Is Done

Only after the collapse became public did the Ministry confirm:

• engagement with approximately 25 affected students, and
• discussions with the University of Belize Medical School regarding possible transfers.

While this effort is necessary, it is also reactive.

The question Belizeans are entitled to ask is this:

Why were students not protected before the collapse, instead of rescued after it?

A regulator’s duty is not crisis management alone.

It is early warning, enforcement, and prevention.

IV. The Silence That Enabled Harm

Equally troubling is what students report they did not receive:

• no written notice of charter expiration,
• no directive to pause enrollment,
• no assurance about transcript custody,
• no guidance on exit options.

Instead, students describe:

• confusion,
• fear,
• warnings not to speak publicly,
• and uncertainty over whether their years of study mean anything at all.

In any properly regulated system, student records are never hostage to a collapsing institution.

That they appear to be here points to a structural failure far beyond one school.

V. This Is Bigger Than One University

American Northwest University is not an anomaly.

Belize has a documented history of:

• offshore medical and health institutions registering locally,
• marketing aggressively,
• operating in regulatory gray zones,
• and collapsing—leaving students stranded.

What changes is not the outcome.

What changes is only the name.

Which raises a hard but unavoidable conclusion:

Belize does not yet have a student-protection framework strong enough to manage high-risk offshore medical education.

Charters are granted.

But safeguards are not enforced with equal rigor.

VI. The Central Question This Investigation Poses

This feature does not accuse.

It asks.

And it asks plainly:

• What system allowed a medical school to function—visibly or invisibly—after its legal authority expired?
• Why were Belizean students not shielded the moment non-renewal became likely?
• Who bears responsibility for ensuring that authorization status is not merely filed, but actively enforced?
• And why does Belize still lack mandatory protections such as:

1. transcript escrow,
2. teach-out plans,
3. performance bonds,
4. and immediate public advisories?

Until these questions are answered, the risk remains—not just for these students, but for every Belizean family chasing education as a path out of poverty.

VII. What Comes Next

This investigative feature is Part One of a wider inquiry.

Next:

1. The Documents — What the Ministry knew, when it knew it, and what actions followed (or did not).
2. The Claims vs Reality — Accreditation, recognition, and U.S. clinical rotations examined line by line.
3. The Pattern — A historical mapping of offshore medical schools in Belize.
4. The Fix — Concrete reforms to ensure this never happens again.

Because Belize cannot afford to let ambition be exploited—

and education cannot be governed by silence.

National Perspective Belize

Independent. Relentless. Accountable.