Local Corrupt Universities

Thursday, 26 May 2011 09:25

Written by Louie C. Montemar

I recently received email messages from very irate and concerned students of one of Manila’s city colleges. A number of students in that “university” want to transfer to other schools because they could not bear the politicking in the university that is affecting even the student body and the quality of education service in said institution. Some of the students have complained about how they are being charged certain fees but these collections are not supported by official receipts. If true, perhaps we should call these “LCUs” not “local colleges and universities,” but “local corrupt universities” instead.

Moreover, the students complain of the grossly inefficient administrative system of that city college. They want to transfer but could not simply because that city university’s Registrar’s Office could not, for some unclear reason, process their papers quickly enough and would not offer them any fixed date as to when they can expect their documents. Thus, the poor students could not process their applications for transfer to other schools.

These students are frozen stiff by fear of the powers-that-be in that university. I could just sense just how disempowered they feel with several email messages closing in a manner similar to this: “Wag po sana ninyong sabihin sa posts ninyo yung comment at sitwasyon ko, kasi kilala nila ako.”

Hello CHED! Or should it be… Hello, DILG?

Indeed, one extremely neglected aspect of the governance of education in our country is the status of local colleges and universities (LCUs).

Under a prevailing framework of decentralization, local government units are empowered to establish higher education institutions within their jurisdiction. There are now almost a hundred of such institutions. However, how these institutions have performed, and the regulatory framework to ensure their effective governance, remains unclear, to say the least. DILG has some memorandum orders that serve as guidelines for the management of these LCUs but that is all there is—mere guidelines, declarations with no fang nor venom.

What is clear is that, in the final analysis, these LCUs are controlled by our local government units (LGUs). Records from the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) indicate that in schoolyear 2001-2002, there were 42 such institutions. Since then, this number has steadily increased: there were 44 in SY 2002-2003, 46 in SY 2003-2004, 50 in SY 2004-2005, 65 in SY2005-2006, 70 in SY 2006-2007, 75 in SY 2007-2008, and 77 in SY 2008-2009. The latest CHED count for schoolyear, 2010-2011, reveals 93 institutions, only twenty less than the total number of state universities and colleges (SUCs) — higher education institutions established mainly through an act of Congress and are thus funded by the national government.

With most of them having less stringent admissions policies and being tuition-free or having lower tuition rates than the more established and better-funded SCUs, these LUCs are attracting droves of our high school graduates into courses that are not too capital intensive, as it were. These include education and public administration.

To date, there has been no extensive study or mapping of Philippine LCUs. No one has systematically examined their performance and assessed the regulatory framework for governing these institutions. There is an urgent need to identify the policy interventions that may be necessary for an effective and — more importantly — a meaningful system of governing local institutions of higher learning in the country.

From a broad development concern, one important question that needs to be asked about LCUs is how do the academic offerings of LCUs fit into perceived gaps in the higher education system as a whole? It can be argued perhaps that LCUs may be useful in educating the kind of bureaucrats that local communities need. But of what quality?

Different statutory provisions provide a confusing picture of the web of institutions involved in governing LCUs. Autonomy granted to local government units under the Local Government Code of 1991 (Republic Act 7160) have allowed local governments to establish LCUs within their jurisdiction, and to support these institutions with budgetary allocations. The Higher Education Act of 1994 (Republic Act 7722), as affirmed by a recent Department of Justice ruling, places supervision and control powers over all higher education institutions, including LCUs, within the CHED. More recently, a Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) memorandum circular (2009-67), issued guidelines on the establishment and operations of LCUs, which, among other things, provided operational autonomy to LCUs through the constitution of a Governing Board and a fixed term of office for the appointed President. But how are these boards doing? Are they functional?

Yes, the education sector has long been the object of intensive scrutiny in the Philippines. However, despite the many studies and related initiatives done in the past, the country continues to be among the laggards in international education standards concerning access to and quality of education, notwithstanding the strong evidence that education plays a key role in development processes and outcomes. There is a need to keep a vigilant watch.

Recent initiatives in reviewing the education sector focus on basic education, particularly with the proposed K+12 curriculum. Likewise, attention has been placed on improving the capacities of higher education institutions for both the training of higher-order skills of the future workforce, as well as the conduct of research and development activities.

Let’s look at these LCUs more closely too. Relatively young as many of them are as institutions, we should not allow them to become “local corrupt universities.”