NURSING and allied health students across the country are set to receive major financial relief after the 2026 national budget formally allocated P500 million to cover Related Learning Experience (RLE) fees, a long-standing expense shouldered by healthcare students.
The funding, integrated into the P1.38-trillion education budget, was pushed by Senator Bam Aquino to ease the financial burden on students and help curb the continued migration of Filipino healthcare workers abroad.
For years, nursing and allied health students have paid between P100,000 and P200,000 over four years to complete mandatory hospital training and laboratory requirements.
These costs, often not included in tuition, have forced many students and their families into debt or, in some cases, to abandon their studies.
Senator Aquino said the current system places students in an unfair position, even those enrolled in free college programs or supported by scholarships.
“The present setup practically forces nursing students to go abroad. This reform ensures that RLE expenses are included in free college. Even if tuition is free or a student has a scholarship, they still pay RLE fees to hospitals just to complete their degree,” Aquino said.
He pointed out that many families resort to borrowing money to support their children’s education, only to discover that local nurse salaries are insufficient to pay off those debts.
“Students often have no choice but to borrow money. The question is how can they repay that on a local nurse’s salary? This system pushes them to work overseas. This is one step toward giving our nurses support and the real option to stay and work in the Philippines,” Aquino added.
The P500-million allocation is lodged under the Higher Education Development Program (HEDP) and will cover RLE fees for students enrolled in nursing, midwifery, medical technology or medical laboratory science, pharmacy, physical therapy, occupational and respiratory therapy, radiologic technology, nutrition, dietetics, psychology, dentistry, biochemistry, and speech-language pathology.
Around 20,000 nursing and allied health students are expected to benefit this year, with each receiving between P10,000 and P20,000.
State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) and Local Universities and Colleges (LUCs) will submit projected RLE costs directly to the Commission on Higher Education (Ched), which will release the funds through UniFAST, ensuring that students will no longer see RLE charges included in their enrollment fees.
Students enrolled in accredited private higher education institutions may apply for the Tertiary Education Subsidy (TES) specifically for RLE expenses.
The 2026 budget also mandates Ched to revise TES guidelines to officially recognize RLE fees as allowable costs.
While the 2026 allocation provides immediate relief, Senator Aquino said he is also pushing for Senate Bill 123, or the proposed Libreng RLE Act, which seeks to institutionalize free RLE for disadvantaged and “poor but deserving” students, making clinical training fully accessible in the long term. (ABC)