Allied Health Courses in the Philippines

TL;DR: "Allied health" is a convenience label, not a CHED category. What matters is which health degree has its own CHED programme standard and which ends in a PRC licensure examination. Almost all of them do: medical technology, pharmacy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, radiologic technology, respiratory therapy, nutrition and dietetics, midwifery, speech-language pathology and nursing each have a Professional Regulatory Board. BS Public Health does not. Psychology has a board, but at bachelor level it licenses psychometricians, not psychologists. Physical therapy and occupational therapy used to share one board and were separated by Republic Act No. 11241.

This page is a map, not a deep dive. Each programme below has its own guide on this site covering unit loads, internship requirements and exam structure. What follows is the shape of the whole field and the licensure answer for each part of it.

What "Allied Health" Actually Means Here

CHED does not publish a cluster called allied health. Its health programmes are issued as individual memorandum orders, each one a Policies, Standards and Guidelines document for a single degree. The grouping people mean when they say allied health is roughly: health professions other than medicine, taught at bachelor level, most of them ending in a licence.

That is a workable definition as long as you use it to ask the right question, which is not "is this allied health" but "does this degree have a CHED programme standard, and does it end in a PRC licence."

The Programmes, With Their Orders

Nursing and dentistry are sometimes excluded from "allied health" on the argument that they are professions in their own right. That distinction has no practical effect on your application, so they are listed here.

The Licensure Answer, Field by Field

CHED sets what you study. The PRC decides whether you can practise. The two lists do not line up perfectly, and that is where students get caught.

Programmes that end in a licence. Reading CHED's programme standards against the PRC's published list of Professional Regulatory Boards, every allied health degree in the table above leads to a licensure examination except public health. Medical Technology, Midwifery, Nursing, Nutrition and Dietetics, Occupational Therapy, Optometry, Pharmacy, Physical Therapy, Radiologic Technology, Respiratory Therapy, Speech-Language Pathology, Dentistry and Veterinary Medicine all appear on the PRC board list.

BS Public Health does not have a board. This is the single most useful thing on this page. Public health is a real and growing field with a proper CHED standard, CMO No. 1, series of 2024, and it feeds into local government health offices, NGOs, research units and the epidemiology side of DOH work. But there is no Public Health Licensure Examination, because there is no Professional Regulatory Board of Public Health. If you enrol expecting a board exam at the end, you will be disappointed four years too late.

Psychology licenses at two levels. Under Republic Act No. 10029, the Philippine Psychology Act of 2009, a bachelor's graduate is eligible for the Psychometrician Licensure Examination. The psychologist licence requires further graduate study. A BS Psychology graduate who says they are "a psychologist" after passing the board has, strictly, passed the psychometrician exam. Our BS Psychology guide and the psychometrician board exam guide set out the two paths.

Physical therapy and occupational therapy split. They were once regulated by a single Board of Physical and Occupational Therapy under Republic Act No. 5680. Republic Act No. 11241, the Philippine Occupational Therapy Law of 2018, created a separate Board of Occupational Therapy with its own examination and scope. Older material describing one combined board is out of date.

Speech-language pathology is the newest of them. Republic Act No. 11249, the Speech-Language Pathology Act, was approved on 22 March 2019. The programme standard, CMO 59, s. 2017, predates the law.

If you want the licence question across every profession rather than health alone, see our list of courses with board exams.

Two Rules That Apply Across All of Them

Clinical hours cannot be moved online. CHED's current policy on distance delivery, CMO No. 12, series of 2025 on Open Distance and e-Learning, is direct about it. For PRC-regulated programmes — the order names engineering, nursing and education as examples — "ODeL delivery shall be limited to the non-laboratory components, unless supplemental guidelines allow for specific laboratory courses to be conducted via ODeL, using approved virtual or remote modalities." The order also says supplemental guidelines will be issued for board programmes. Treat any allied health programme advertised as fully online with scepticism, and ask CHED's regional office whether the school has authority for the modality.

Programme availability is regulated, not open. CHED can and does restrict where health programmes may be opened. The moratorium on new BS Nursing offerings was lifted through CMO No. 19, series of 2022, which set the conditions for schools opening the programme. That is why a school near you may not offer a degree that looks common elsewhere.

The Shorter Routes

Not every path into a health career is a four-year bachelor's degree, and CHED maintains standards for the shorter ones too.

Radiologic technology has an associate-level programme. CHED issued CMO No. 4, series of 2025, "Revised Policies, Standards and Guidelines for Associate in Radiologic Technology Education (ART) Program." That is a separate qualification from the BS Radiologic Technology degree covered by CMO No. 7, series of 2018, and it leads to a different scope of practice under Republic Act No. 7431. If a school offers you "radtech" without specifying, ask which of the two it is — the difference determines what you may do in a clinic and which examination you sit.

CHED has also been actively building capacity in this field. CMO No. 5, series of 2025 sets guidelines for the accreditation of hospitals and primary health care facilities for the clinical practice of radiologic and X-ray technology interns, and CMO No. 22, series of 2025 covers support for institutions opening or running the BS Radiologic Technology programme. Both are signals that placement capacity, not classroom capacity, is the binding constraint in this field — which is exactly what you should be asking a school about.

Midwifery is the other short route into a licensed health profession. Its current standard is CMO No. 3, series of 2023, and it leads to the PRC Board of Midwifery under Republic Act No. 7392. Our BS Midwifery guide and the midwifery board exam guide cover the programme and the examination.

Below degree level, TESDA-registered qualifications such as caregiving sit in a different system entirely — a National Certificate, not a licence. Our TESDA caregiving course guide explains what that does and does not authorise.

Choosing Between Them

Compare the clinical requirement, not the tuition. These programmes differ far more in internship structure than in classroom content. Where a school places its interns, and whether those placements are in accredited facilities, is the part of the education that determines your first job. Ask for the actual list of affiliated hospitals and clinics.

Look at the board results of the specific school. Passing rates vary far more between institutions than between programmes. Our roundup of top nursing schools by NLE passing rate shows the spread; the same pattern holds across the other health boards.

Be clear about what the degree licenses you to do. Medical technology and nursing get compared constantly by applicants who want "a hospital job." They are different professions with different work, different shifts and different overseas pathways. Our nursing versus medtech comparison is written for exactly that decision.

If you are aiming abroad, check the destination's rules before the Philippine ones. A Philippine licence is the starting point, not the passport. Each destination country runs its own examination or credential evaluation, and the requirements change independently of anything CHED or PRC does.

Sources

• Commission on Higher Education — 2017 CHED Memorandum Orders (full list of issuances)
• Commission on Higher Education — 2018 CHED Memorandum Orders
• Commission on Higher Education — 2021 CHED Memorandum Orders, including CMO No. 25 on BS Pharmacy
• Commission on Higher Education — 2022 CHED Memorandum Orders, including CMO No. 19 on lifting the moratorium on new BS Nursing programmes
• Commission on Higher Education — 2023 CHED Memorandum Orders, including CMO No. 3 on BS Midwifery
• CHED — CMO No. 12, s. 2025, Policies and Guidelines on Open Distance and e-Learning (PDF)
• Commission on Higher Education — 2025 CHED Memorandum Orders, including CMO No. 4 on the Associate in Radiologic Technology Education programme and CMO No. 5 on accreditation of clinical practice facilities
• Professional Regulation Commission — List of Professional Regulatory Boards
• LawPhil — Republic Act No. 11241, The Philippine Occupational Therapy Law of 2018