top 20 colleges of the philippines [comments]

first of all, i’d like to thanks those guys who give comments on my entry “top 20 colleges of the philippines” way back last may 10 of this year. this is an old entry yet many are still adding comments bout this. the most intriguing comments are from alison of university of asia and the pacific and vladimir of colegio de san juan de letran and from la salle.

before i let you read the article of boo chanco’s article which is published in sun star may 09, 2005 so that you can have an idea what is the article meant to. please consider reading my comments and answers your remarks.

to alison, vladimir, jharkem, and the anonymous of la salle, the criteria is not based on the paascu accreditation levels. this ranking is based on the schools performance in board exams. the ranking of the school is based on the average passing rate of graduates of colleges and universities in the board examinations of all courses that require it for the practice of a profession. so paascu has nothing to do with this ranking because it was really based on the outputs of the schools graduates during licensure examination.

the ranking is also based on national passing percentage of the school and not just on the passing percentage produce by the school. even if the school got 100 percent passing because all of its students passed the licensure exam, that doesn’t guarantee a ranking. the population or the number of licensure exam takers coming from a specific school is also counted. the school must have a good quantity and a good quality of examinees.

guys, don’t feel bad about the ranking. when i read this article last may, i’m also feeling the same way then because my school is not in the list yet we are at par with the most of the colleges in mindanao listed here. my intention of putting that entry is not to discuss the ranking of the schools performance and to discuss which is the best colleges and universities in the country, but to show to the parents that there are some colleges in the country side that are also produced quality graduates.

anonymous of la salle, don’t feel bad about this. I know la salle is a great school, i even applied an mba in la salle now.

and here’s the article by boo chanco:

Top Colleges
DEMAND AND SUPPLY By Boo Chanco
The Philippine Star | 09 May 2005

There is a material circulating among various e-groups that supposedly ranks the country’s top 20 colleges and universities based on a study conducted by the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) and the Commission on Higher Education(CHED). The ranking supposedly used the average passing rate of graduates of colleges and universities in the board examinations of all courses that require it for the practice of a profession.

This study is now supposed to be done every 10 years. This particular ranking is supposedly the result of the first study from 1992 to 2001. Eleven schools come from Luzon, two from the Visayas and seven from Mindanao.

My problem with this material is that I am unable to confirm it independently. I checked the website of CHED and didn’t find it there. I tried sending an e-mail to CHED, to the address published in their website, but it bounced. Still, for whatever it may be worth, I want to share this list with a wider audience if only to provoke some discussion on where one could get quality college education in this country, given problems with education pre-need companies and family finances in general.

If the basis of this listing is authentic, it tells us that one need not spend a fortune in tuition and other fees of the so called exclusive schools in Metro Manila because there are a lot of good schools out there in the countryside. This is an important consideration for parents who live in the provinces and who are probably agonizing on whether to mortgage the family home to raise the funds needed to send a child to college in Manila.

The most expensive university in Metro Manila is not even in this list. So maybe, given the difficult financial situation today, sending the kids to study in Manila is not necessarily a good idea any more. There are good schools out in the regions. I also believe good students would do well anywhere provided they have a serious desire to get a good education. There is even one college on the list from Butuan that I have not heard of, and it did better than La Salle. The better Ateneo is in Davao, not at Loyola Heights.

Of course the top university in the list is UP Diliman, which makes me feel good. I am happy to note that contrary to what I hear in many circles, the quality of a UP education is still tops. Then again, the overall standards might have gone down too, but that’s another story.

So, here it is, but with the caveat that I decided to use it even without independent verification because of the urgency of helping parents who are making up their minds now, a few weeks before school opening time. The list sounds plausible enough.

01. University of the Philippines (Diliman Campus/Luzon);
02. University of the Philippines (Los Banos Campus/Luzon);
03. University of the Philippines (Manila Campus/Luzon);
04. Silliman University (Dumaguete City/Visayas);
05. Ateneo de Davao University (Davao/Mindanao);
06. Ateneo de Manila University (Manila/Luzon);
07. University of Sto. Tomas (Manila/Luzon);
08. Mindanao State University (Iligan Institute of Tech/Mindanao);
09. Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (Manila/Luzon);
10. Saint Louis University (Baguio City/Luzon);
11. University of San Carlos (Cebu City/Visayas);
12. Xavier University (Cagayan de Oro/Mindanao);
13. Mindanao State University (Main/Mindanao);
14. Urios College (Butuan City/Mindanao);
15. Polytechnic University of the Philippines(Manila/Luzon);
16. De La Salle University (Manila/Luzon);
17. Mapua Institute of Technology (Manila/Luzon);
18. Adamson University (Manila/Luzon);
19. Central Mindanao University ( Bukidnon/Mindanao);
20. University of Southern Philippines (Davao/Mindanao).