The newspaper added that the Upper House discarded the document after collecting only 18 of 20 votes among 39 legislators to approve the proposal to suspend other studies of the profession for five years following a scandal over fake degrees in this and other professions.

Ultima Hora explains that the lawmakers thus refused to approve the bill and sent the initiative to archives to curb new medical careers, whose opponents claimed that many applicants for these studies exceeded the universities’ capacity.

The bill, the publication adds, was rejected despite its supporters within the Legislature argued that if the authorization of the new careers is not temporarily suspended, the excess of graduates could threaten public health. Meanwhile, its detractors claimed to analyze the situation in depth.

ABC Color reported that the Ministry of Education and Science’s specialists discovered about 1,100 fake degrees in early October.

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