Wednesday, August 06, 2008 Tuition, education quality in SUCs to be examined
A TASK force composed of stakeholders in tertiary education will look at the tuition collected as well as the quality of education that state universities and colleges (SUCs) are offering to their students, the Commission on Higher Education (Ched) said.
Ched chairperson Nona Ricafort said the task force will immediately buckle to work adding that aside from these issues, it will also look at other problems confronting higher education in the country.
"The task force will start their work soon. It will be headed by the regional chairperson of the Philippine Association of State Universities and Colleges," she said.
The other member of the task force will be the regional directors of the commission as well as officials of the Coordinating Council of Private Education Association (Cocopea).
The issue of quality education being offered by the country's higher education institutions has gained prominence recently after a 2007 survey by an international agency showed that only the University of the Philippines (UP) and the Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU) made it to the world's top 500 colleges and universities.
UP was ranked 398, down from its 2006 rank of 299; while Ateneo came in at 451, according to the 2007 Times Higher Education survey.
The De La Salle University (DLSU) and the University of Sto. Tomas (UST), which used to rank in the top 500 universities were also removed from the list.
"Philippine Higher Education has also lagged behind our neighboring countries in terms of its quality. It ranked no. 62 within 2007-2008, a notch lower from that of 2006," Ricafort said.
She said the survey results may be discouraging, but suggested the need to investigate the test results.
"The rankings may not be that serious but we have to evaluate what has been dragging down our universities," said Ricafort.
"Actually this issue was opened up in our en banc last week and I requested that a research be made to verify claims that it was dubious," she added.
She added that an evaluation of the test will help Ched ascertain the standing of Philippine universities in the global higher education.
Earlier, education experts pointed out that that lack of enough investment in higher education might result in further deterioration in the quality of education that the country's 111 SUCs are offering.
Aside from SUCs, local government units operate a further 64 colleges in their respective localities.
This, as enrollment in public institutions is increasing over the years. From having 10 percent of all college students enrolled in SCUs as of 1980, it increased to 21 percent a decade later.
By the early 1990s, enrolment rose to 34 percent.
Overall enrolment in public higher education institutions grew by an average of 9.62 percent from 1997 to 2003.
The reason for the increase is the lack of money for private education.
Authorities said the share of the National Government in SCUs' funding has been steadily declining from 85 percent in 2001 to 77 percent in 2005 while SUC spending per student had declined from P17,000-P18,000 in 2004 to P12,930 in 2006.
This year's budget allocation for SUCs represents 1.84 percent of the national budget for 2008, far behind the 2.74 percent allocation in 2007.
On the issue of tuition, students groups have been questioning the increase levied by higher education institutions although this year, SUCs withhold any increase upon the order of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
But private institutions were not covered by the order. (AH/Sunnex)
