Scholarship Program: 1979-80 Report to Congress. Report of the Secretary of Health and Human Services on the Administration of the National Health Service Corps Scholarship Program as Required by Section 751(i) of Title VII of the Public Health Service Act, as Amended, December 12, 1979.

The status of the National Health Service Corps Scholarship Program is examined in this third annual report with cumulative data from inception of the program. The scholarship award includes the payment of a monthly stipend, tuition and fees, and other educational expenses in a federal program of service-conditional awards for students of allopathic and osteopathic medicine, dentistry, and other health professions. In return for each year of award, scholarship recipients must agree to serve one year providing clinical health care services in designated health manpower shortage areas of the United States. Appropriations for the 1979-80 academic year (fiscal year 1979) were $75 million, a $15 million increase over the previous year, with 7,399 applicants. Appropriations for the seven award cycles from the 1973-74 academic year totaled $245.5 million. Awards for the 1979-80 academic year totaled 6,408, with 2,379 awards made to new recipients and 4,029 to former recipients. For the seven award cycles of the program, 22,670 awards have been made to 11,446 students. By the end of fiscal year 1979, 238 scholarship recipients had fulfilled their service obligation; 189 were physicians and 49 were dentists. During the 1979 fiscal year, 605 scholarship participants entered obligated service. Scholarship participants (8,910) still in training are expected to enter service obligations during the fiscal years 1980 through 1986. The service obligations of all recipients since the program began totals over 22,000 person-years. (CC)