Unlike two decades ago, nearly 60 students enrolled for their first year in a Communication course at a state university in Cebu City. These are the students who qualified after passing an entrance examination.
Several trends can be read into this enrollment. Many students and their families will brave another four or five years of undergraduate studies because a graduate of senior high school qualification still finds it difficult to be hired for a job that will provide security in the long term.
Another trend is that state colleges and universities (SUCs) offer more viable options for many Filipino youths. There is free college education, for one.
Although the cost of an SUC education is lower compared to private universities, a student who is unable to finish college within five years is no longer covered by free educational benefits.
One spends about P1,000 per academic unit or P3,000 to enroll in a three-unit course. For a regular semestral course work of 18 units, about P18,000 has to be shelled out upon enrolment if an undergraduate is no longer covered by free educational benefits.
Even if one is privileged to have free tuition and miscellaneous fees, there are other needs that must be shouldered by a student in college: class requirements, a computer, data for Internet connection, fare, food, and board and lodging.
Filipino families invest in college education for their children because the K-12 program has not delivered the promised access to employment without the necessity of the college route.
During the coronavirus pandemic that resulted in many parents losing jobs or going on furloughs, undergraduates resorted to taking part-time work to remain in college. Even now, with the economy returning to pre-pandemic activity, many students, even though they avail of free college education in SUCs, continue to work to afford their necessities for studies.
Balancing school and work takes a toll on the students’ physical and mental health. To cope with the competitiveness in their jobs and academic pressure, many students resort to shortcuts, such as using artificial intelligence (AI) programs to meet deadlines and deliver their outputs.
AI is a mixed blessing for youths. Some applications help students improve in areas needed for their studies like grammar, composition, and aggregation of large data.
On the other hand, many academics consider as a violation in integrity the use of AI to fully conduct research, compose a paper, and create a work one passes off as one’s own. Students violating academic standards face sanctions from their universities, as well as deal with their professors’ and classmates’ judgment and rejection.
Other undergraduates who work as creatives complain that companies replace them with cheaper and more efficient AI programs that can execute writing and replicate design and other tasks.
To reduce much of their anxieties over balancing academics and finances, many college students express the need for financing programs that will assist them cope with emergencies and short-term needs, such as repairing or acquiring laptops, covering shortfalls in their budgeting or buying food and project requirements.
Whenever universities reopen for another academic year, one inevitably compares the high number of students who enroll for their first year of studies. The number inevitably dwindles by the second and successive years.
If our community feels that our youths deserve to be boosted to reach the finish line of college commencement, private stakeholders should partner with SUCs through the sponsorship of scholarships, study-now-pay-later programs, dual education systems that offer simultaneously classroom learning and apprenticeships in a course, student loan programs, and other options that will help the youth realize their potentials, attend to their physical and mental health, and secure the jobs that will benefit their families and the nation.