CHED to tighten compliance requirements of public higher education institutions
Published Jun 12, 2018 03:49 pm
By Merlina Hernando
To ensure the quality of higher education with the implementation of the Free Higher Education law, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) will be tightening compliance requirements of public higher education institutions nationwide.
CHED Commissioner Prospero de Vera III
(RTVM / MANILA BULLETIN) CHED Officer-in-Charge Prospero De Vera III, in an interview with the Manila Bulletin, noted that one of the challenges in implementing the Republic Act (RA) 10931 or the “Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act (UAQTEA) is how to “ensure the quality of higher education.” Signed into a law by President Rodrigo Duterte in 2017, RA 10931 will be implemented starting this Academic Year (AY) 2018-2019 with a P40-Billion allocation in the 2018 General Appropriations Act from the Congress. It has four components: 1) Free Higher Education wherein the government will provide free tuition, miscellaneous and other similar or related fees to students admitted in State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) and CHED-recognized Local Universities and Colleges (LUCs); 2) Free Technical-Vocational Education and Training (TVET) for those enrolled in state-run Technical Vocational Institutions (TVIs); 3) Tertiary Education Subsidy (TES) or grants-in-aid; and 4) national Student Loan Program (SLP). “In the 112 SUCs, we’re going to tighten on the Certificate of Program Compliance (COPC) – this is compliance of degree programs with CHED standards,” De Vera said. “We are going to do that more seriously,” he added. For the LUCs, De Vera noted, that they have to comply with COPC requirements in the next two years. “If their programs are not 100 % compliant in the next two years, they will be deleted from the list of universities that will get free tuition and miscellaneous,” he explained. In the use of the TES, De Vera said that CHED is currently developing a registry of recognized universities and recognized programs from the perspective of CHED. “So the TES beneficiaries, we are encouraging them to go to these programs…that is our way of tightening the quality aspect of the law,” he added. De Vera noted that a minimum of about 1.3 million – potentially as high as 1.4 million will benefit from the implementation of the UAQTEA. “On our estimation, we are receiving the first batch of Senior High School (SHS) graduates now,” he said. “The data of DepEd say that about 1.5 million are graduating from the SHS…if you look at the experience in the past years, about 50 % of high school graduates try to go to the university level or apply for higher education,” he added. “We estimating that because it is free, the percentage of SHS students who will try to go higher ed will increase maybe by about 70%,” De Vera explained. “If you use those numbers, the expected number of students from senior high who will be applying to higher ed will be a little over 400,000 and you add that to the close 900,000 current students, you have about 1.3 million students,” he noted. However, De Vera said that this estimation “could go a little higher” because some of the beneficiaries of this, for instance, those who go to TVET, would not necessarily come from SHS – “there are other sources of those who go to TVET.” De Vera said that since higher education is now free, it is “also possible that there may be returning students or those who stopped schooling because of financial need who will now try to get readmission to higher education institutions.” He also noted “lifelong learners” or those who graduated earlier and delayed their entry in the university level. "They might try to get in because it is now free,” he ended.
CHED Commissioner Prospero de Vera III(RTVM / MANILA BULLETIN) CHED Officer-in-Charge Prospero De Vera III, in an interview with the Manila Bulletin, noted that one of the challenges in implementing the Republic Act (RA) 10931 or the “Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act (UAQTEA) is how to “ensure the quality of higher education.” Signed into a law by President Rodrigo Duterte in 2017, RA 10931 will be implemented starting this Academic Year (AY) 2018-2019 with a P40-Billion allocation in the 2018 General Appropriations Act from the Congress. It has four components: 1) Free Higher Education wherein the government will provide free tuition, miscellaneous and other similar or related fees to students admitted in State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) and CHED-recognized Local Universities and Colleges (LUCs); 2) Free Technical-Vocational Education and Training (TVET) for those enrolled in state-run Technical Vocational Institutions (TVIs); 3) Tertiary Education Subsidy (TES) or grants-in-aid; and 4) national Student Loan Program (SLP). “In the 112 SUCs, we’re going to tighten on the Certificate of Program Compliance (COPC) – this is compliance of degree programs with CHED standards,” De Vera said. “We are going to do that more seriously,” he added. For the LUCs, De Vera noted, that they have to comply with COPC requirements in the next two years. “If their programs are not 100 % compliant in the next two years, they will be deleted from the list of universities that will get free tuition and miscellaneous,” he explained. In the use of the TES, De Vera said that CHED is currently developing a registry of recognized universities and recognized programs from the perspective of CHED. “So the TES beneficiaries, we are encouraging them to go to these programs…that is our way of tightening the quality aspect of the law,” he added. De Vera noted that a minimum of about 1.3 million – potentially as high as 1.4 million will benefit from the implementation of the UAQTEA. “On our estimation, we are receiving the first batch of Senior High School (SHS) graduates now,” he said. “The data of DepEd say that about 1.5 million are graduating from the SHS…if you look at the experience in the past years, about 50 % of high school graduates try to go to the university level or apply for higher education,” he added. “We estimating that because it is free, the percentage of SHS students who will try to go higher ed will increase maybe by about 70%,” De Vera explained. “If you use those numbers, the expected number of students from senior high who will be applying to higher ed will be a little over 400,000 and you add that to the close 900,000 current students, you have about 1.3 million students,” he noted. However, De Vera said that this estimation “could go a little higher” because some of the beneficiaries of this, for instance, those who go to TVET, would not necessarily come from SHS – “there are other sources of those who go to TVET.” De Vera said that since higher education is now free, it is “also possible that there may be returning students or those who stopped schooling because of financial need who will now try to get readmission to higher education institutions.” He also noted “lifelong learners” or those who graduated earlier and delayed their entry in the university level. "They might try to get in because it is now free,” he ended.