Government creating more colleges than it can support?

MANILA, Philippines – The government, it seems, continue to create state colleges and universities (SCUs) more than it can sufficiently support.

There are now 113 tertiary schools strewn across the length and breadth of the archipelago. By ratio, there is more than one institution of higher learning in every province – from Batanes to Tawi-Tawi.

The proliferation of SCUs in the country becomes more noticeable when one considers that many of the schools, particularly universities, have campuses scattered across a province.

Actually, these state-owned and funded schools were separate from each other in the past.

Several decades ago, the government merged institutions in provinces and created universities out of them. Thus, some have become provincial universities while others, owing to the wide scope of their educational coverage, have assumed the role of “regional universities.”

For example, the Pangasinan State University (PSU) has an agriculture campus (Sta. Maria town), fisheries campus (Binmaley), education (Bayambang), and other fields of study based in PSU units situated in other towns and cities.

The Benguet State University (BSU) now serves as the regional university in the Cordillera, the country’s foremost vegetable bowl.

Other regional schools include the Central Luzon State University (CLSU, Science City of Muñoz, Nueva Ecija), Bicol University (BU), Visayas State University (VSU, Baybay City, Leyte), Central Mindanao University (CMU, Musuan, Bukidnon), and University of Southern Mindanao (USM, Kabacan, North Cotabato).

On top of the country’s educational totem pole is the “national university” exemplified by the University of the Philippines System (UPS).

Nationwide, even small islands with only a few towns have their own state colleges. This, notwithstanding the fact that they are only a few minutes or an hour or two boat ride to cities or centers of population where there is a glut of government and private universities and colleges.

This is a case of the school going to the people and not vice versa.

The presence of colleges in isolated islands is not hard to justify, though. Examples are the state colleges of Batanes, Catanduanes, Camiguin, and Sulu, MSU (Mindanao State University)-Tawi-Tawi College of Technology and Oceanography and Tawi-Tawi Regional Agricultural College.

By geographical distribution, Central Luzon (Region 3) has the most number of SCUs – six universities and six colleges in a region with only six provinces.

Three regions have 11 each – Region 4 (A and B) with six universities and five colleges; West Visayas (Region 6), three universities and eight colleges; and Eastern Visayas (Region 8), seven universities and four colleges.

Interestingly, the national capital region (NCR) has only nine – five universities and four colleges. But Metro Manila is the seat of many private educational institutions, among them such “education icons” as the Ateneo de Manila University, De La Salle University, University of Sto. Tomas, University of the East, Far Eastern University, and Lyceum University.

Another region has nine SCUs – Western Mindanao (Region 9, including the main region and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao or ARMM) with one university and eight colleges.

Bicol (Region 5) has two universities and six colleges while Northern Mindanao (Region 10) has two universities and five colleges.

The Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) has six (one university and five colleges), along with Central Mindanao (Region 12) with two universities and four colleges.

Three regions have five each – Ilocos (Region 1) with four universities and one college; Cagayan Valley (Region 2), three universities and two colleges; and Central Visayas (Region 7), two universities and three colleges.

Two regions have four each – Davao Region (Region 11) with one university and three colleges; and CARAGA Administrative Region (Region 13) with four colleges. –Rudy A. Fernandez, Philippine Star

(To be concluded)