De Vera clarifies UniFAST status of Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila
At A Glance
- Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) Popoy de Vera said the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (PLM) won't be removed from the list of school-beneficiaries under the Unified Student Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education or UniFAST.
CHEd Chairman Popoy de Vera (Screenshot from Facebook live)
The Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (PLM) won't be removed from the list of school-beneficiaries under the Unified Student Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education or UniFAST--at least not yet.
Thus, said Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) Chairman Popoy de Vera on Tuesday, Sept.12 during the House Committee on Appropriations' deliberation on the agency's 2024 budget.
During the five-hour hearing, House Deputy Minority Leader ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. France Castro asked De Vera whether or not it was true that PLM had been delistsd from UniFAST.
The CHEd head honcho answered in the negative.
What CHEd did according to De Vera was send a letter to the PLM management asking it to comply with some of the requirements of UniFAST. This includes the attainment of a doctorate degree on the part of the university president--something that the top official of PLM doesn't have.
De Vera said such requirement issues were identified in order to give PLM a chance to the address them.
Under UniFAST, state and local universities or colleges must have institutional recognition and a certificate of program compliance or COPC for it to be qualified.
According to CHEd, a total of 97 local universities and colleges (LUCs) have complied and have good standing. On the other hand, 19 have been delisted.
The appropriations panel terminated the budget hearing of CHEd the same day. It was deferred by the panel last week.