Skip to main content

Discontinue offering underperforming college degrees—study

Image
By
The Commission on Higher Education should enforce “more vigorously” its policy of closing existing programs of state colleges and universities (SUCs) that perform under par year after year in Professional Board Examinations (PBEs).

This is one of the recommendations of “Review and Assessment of Programs Offered by State Universities and Colleges” co-written by Dr. Rosario Manasan and Danileen Kristel Parel, senior research fellow and supervising research specialist, respectively, of state think tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS).

“It is worrisome that there is a preponderance of universities and colleges with zero passing rate in many professional board exams (PBEs) from 2004 to 2011,” the study noted. “Furthermore, closer scrutiny of SUCs’ passing rate in PBEs indicate that a good number of them post passing rates that are well below the national average passing rate year after year.”

Degrees that have poor PBE performance are agriculture, accountancy, criminology, electrical engineering, electronics engineering, geodetic engineering, social work, elementary and secondary education, library science, forestry, and environmental planning.  Data available show that the median passing rate for 38 PBEs for 2004-2011ranged from 40 to 48 percent. Only 10 out of 38 PBEs had average passing rates above 60 percent and only 6 had passing rates above 70 percent.

The study noted that the SUCs offer “popular” courses even if these are beyond their core mandate.  “Given the broad mandates of SUCs, it is not surprising that there is substantial duplication in their program offerings relative to those of private higher education institutions (PHEIs) and other SUCs in the same region where they operate.”

Program duplication may be considered a problem for a number of reasons. “One, the number of programs offered by SUCs has been found empirically to tend to increase per student cost of SUCs. Two, when SUCs offer programs that PHEIs traditionally offer, PHEIs are effectively crowded out because the tuition fees charged by SUCs is significantly lower than that of PHEIs.” PHEI officials note the seeming unfair competition.  While the CHED strictly enforces its policies, standards and guidelines, some SUCs are allowed to offer courses without the requisite facilities and qualified faculty.

While some SUC officials hold that the poor PBE performance are currently being addressed by conducting review classes and pre-board examinations, the study noted that these measures will improve the passing rate but will not necessarily improve the quality of instruction. Faculty development and upgrading of facilities are argued to be more effective in improving overall performance.

The study also recommends the following: (i) CHED should ensure that SUCs` program offerings comply with policies, standards, and guidelines of the commission;  (ii) CHED should weigh the advantages and disadvantages of centralization over decentralization with respect to the monitoring of SUCs;  (iii) the CHED regional director should become a regular member of the SUC Board; and (iv) the normative funding formula should be adjusted so that SUCs do not get an additional subsidy from the national government for the additional enrollment resulting from their offering popular programs. SUCs may be allowed to offer popular programs provided they meet CHED standards and shoulder the full cost of offering those programs.


You may download the full study from this link: http://dirp3.pids.gov.ph/webportal/CDN/PUBLICATIONS/pidsdps1429.pdf (PIDS)
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Empanada festival: A celebration of good taste and good life

By
By Dominic B. dela Cruz & Leilanie G. Adriano Staff reporters BATAC CITY—If there is one thing Batac is truly proud of, it would be its famous empanada-making business that has nurtured its people over the years. Embracing a century-old culture and culinary tradition, Batac’s empanada claims to be the best and tastiest in the country with its distinctive Ilokano taste courtesy of its local ingredients: fresh grated papaya, mongo, chopped longganisa, and egg. The crispy orange wrapper and is made of rice flour that is deep-fried. The celebration of this city’s famous traditional fast food attracting locals and tourists elsewhere comes with the City Charter Day of Batac every 23 rd  of June. Every year, the City Government of Batac led by Mayor Jeffrey Jubal Nalupta commemorate the city’s charter day celebration to further promote its famous One-Town, One Product, the Batac empanada. Empanada City The Batac empanada festival has already become...
9 comments
Read more

Free dormitories eyed for Nueva Era students in LC, Batac

By
 Nueva Era mayor Aldrin Garvida By Dominic B. dela Cruz ( Staff Reporter) Nueva Era , Ilocos Norte—The municipal government here, headed by Nueva Era mayor Aldrin Garvida is planning to establish dormitories in the cities of Laoag and Batac that will exclusively cater to college students from the said cities. “Sapay la kuma ta maituloyen iti mabiit tay ar-arapaapen tayo ken iti munisipyo a maipatakderan kuma dagiti annak tayo a college students nga agbasbasa idiay siyudad iti Batac ken Laoag iti libre a dormitoryo a bukod da ngem inggana nga awan pay ket an-anusan mi paylaeng nga ibaklay kenni apo bise mayor iti pagbayad da iti kasera aggapu iti bukod mi a suweldo malaksid dagitay it-ited iti munisipyo ken iti barangay nga stipend da kada semester, ” Garvida said.    Garvida added that the proposed establishment of dormitories would be a big help to the students’ parents as this would shoulder the expenses of their children for rent and likewise they would feel...
Post a Comment
Read more

P29 per kilo rice sold to vulnerable groups in Ilocos region

By
BBM RICE. Residents buy rice for only PHP29 per kilo at the NIA compound in San Nicolas town, Ilocos Norte province on Sept. 13, 2024. The activity was under a nationwide pilot program of the government to sell quality and affordable rice initially to the vulnerable sectors. (Lei Adriano) San Nicolas , Ilocos Norte —Senior citizens, persons with disability, and solo parents availed of cheap rice sold at PHP29 per kilogram during the grand launching of the Bagong Bayaning Magsasaka (BBM) Rice held at the National Irrigation Administration compound in San Nicolas, Ilocos Norte province on Sept. 13, 2024. “ Maraming salamat Pangulong Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. sa inyong pagmamahal sa Region 1 lalong-lalo na sa bayan namin sa San Nicolas,” said Violeta Pasion, a resident Brgy.   18 Bingao in this town. The low-priced grains were sourced from the National Irrigation Administration’s (NIA) contract farming with irrigators' association members in the province. Along with Pasion, Epi...
Post a Comment
Read more