Philippines

Partners situated in Philippines

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Philippines in a nutshell

(sourced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippines)

The Philippines, officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, is a country in Southeast Asia with Manila as its capital city. It comprises over 7,000 islands[ in the western Pacific Ocean.

The Philippines is the world's 12th most populous country, with an estimated population of about 92 million people.

Its capital is Manila but the largest city is Quezon City.

Its national economy is the 47th largest in the world, with an estimated 2008 gross domestic product (GDP nominal) of over US$ 168.6 billion (nominal). It is estimated that there are about 11 million overseas Filipinos worldwide, equivalent to about 11% of the total population of the Philippines. The Philippines is a newly industrialized country, with an economy anchored on agriculture but with substantial contributions from manufacturing, mining, remittances from overseas Filipinos, and service industries such as tourism, and business process outsourcing. It is also listed in the roster of the "Next Eleven" economies.

As a former colony of Spain, the Philippines is one of two predominantly Roman Catholic countries in Asia, the other being East Timor. There are also a number of minority religious groups, including Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and other beliefs. Multiple ethnicities, and cultures are found throughout the islands. Ecologically, the Philippines is one of the most diverse countries in the world.

The official name of the Philippines changed throughout the course of its history. During the Philippine Revolution, it was officially called República Filipina or the Philippine Republic. From the period of the Spanish-American War, and the Philippine-American War, until the Commonwealth period, American colonial authorities referred to the country as the Philippine Islands, a translation of the original Spanish name. It was during the American period that the name Philippines began to appear, a name that has become its common name. The official name of the country now is Republic of the Philippines.

The Philippines has a presidential, unitary form of government (with some modification; there is one autonomous region largely free from the national government), where the President functions as both head of state and head of government and is commander-in-chief of the armed forces. The president is elected by popular vote to a single six-year term, during which time she or he appoints and presides over the cabinet.

The bicameral Congress is composed of a Senate, serving as the upper house whose members are elected to a six-year term, and a House of Representatives serving as the lower house, whose members are elected to a three-year term, and are elected from both legislative districts, and through sectoral representation.

The judicial power is vested in the Supreme Court, composed of a Chief Justice as its presiding officer, and fourteen associate justices, all appointed by the Philippine President from nominations submitted by the Judicial and Bar Council.

The Philippines is divided into three island groups: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. These are divided into 17 regions, 80 provinces, 120 cities, 1511 municipalities, and 42,008 barangays.

Over 180 native languages, and dialects are spoken in the Philippines. They are part of the Borneo-Philippines group of the Malayo-Polynesian languages, which is itself a branch of the Austronesian language family.[89]

According to the 1987 Philippine Constitution, Filipino and English are the official languages. Filipino is the de facto version of Tagalog, spoken mainly in Metro Manila, and other urban regions. Both Tagalog, and English are used in government, education, print, broadcast media, and business. Major languages recognized in the constitution include Bicolano, Cebuano, Ilocano, Hiligaynon or Ilonggo, Kapampangan, Pangasinan, Tagalog, and Waray-Waray. Spanish, and Arabic are both recognized as auxiliary languages. Other languages such as Aklanon, Boholano, Chavacano, Zamboangueño, Cuyonon, Ifugao, Itbayat, Ivatan, Kalinga, Kamayo, Kankana-ey, Kinaray-a, Maguindanao, Maranao, Masbatenyo, Romblomanon, Surigaonon, Tausug, Yakan, and several Visayan languages are dominant in their respective provinces.

Philippines education system

(sourced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippines and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_the_Philippines)

Education in the Philippines is mostly Westernized, based on the US education system. Philippine DepEd reports a functional literacy rate of 84.1% for 2003. Other agencies are much more optimistic, Literacy is about equal for males, and females. Spending for education composes 2.5% of GDP.

There were 42,152 elementary schools and 8,455 high schools registered with DepEd for school year 2006-2007. Classes start in June, and end in March. The majority of colleges, and universities follow a semester calendar from June to October, and November to March. There are a number of foreign schools with study programmes. The general pattern of formal education follows six stages:

1. Preschool
2. Elementary school
3. High school
4. Post-secondary education
5. Graduate education
6. Adult education

The Department of Education (DepEd), formerly (DECS), covers elementary, secondary, and non-formal education; the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) administers the post-secondary, middle-level education training, and development; while the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) supervises the college as well as graduate academic programmes, and degrees as well as regulate standards in higher education.

For a list of colleges and universities see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_colleges_and_universities_in_the_Philippines

Higher education

(sourced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_the_Philippines)

Higher education institutions in the Philippines are either colleges or universities, and they are generally classified either as public or private. Colleges are tertiary institutions that typically offer one or a few specialized courses, for example, in the sciences or in liberal arts, whereas universities are tertiary institutions housing several constituent colleges or institutes, each offering academic degree programs of a particular type (i.e., college of commerce, college of law, college of dentistry, college of education, etc.).

Public tertiary education

Public universities are all non-sectarian entities, and are further classified as State University and College (SUC) or Local College and University (LCU). SUCs are fully funded by the national government as determined by the Philippine Congress. The University of the Philippines, being the national university, receives the biggest chunk of the budget among the 456 state colleges and universities. LCUs, on the other hand, are run by local government units. The Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila is first and largest among the LCUs.

Private tertiary institutions

Private colleges and universities may either be "sectarian" or "non-sectarian" entities. Institutions may be not-for-profit, or profit oriented. Most private schools are not-for-profit Catholic like Adamson University (Vincentian), the Ateneo de Manila University (Jesuit), De La Salle University (Christian Brothers), Don Bosco Technical College (Salesian), and the University of Santo Tomas (Dominican). However, there are also non-Catholic not-for-profit sectarian institutions such as Silliman University (Protestant), Trinity University of Asia (Anglican), and New Era University (Iglesia Ni Cristo).

Non-sectarian private schools, on the other hand, are corporations licensed by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Some of them are also registered on the Philippine Stock Exchange.

Universities in Philippines

University of the Philippines System

(sourced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_the_Philippines)

The University of the Philippines (or Unibersidad ng Pilipinas in Filipino and commonly abbreviated as U.P.) is the national university of the Philippines. Founded in 1908 through Act No. 1870 of the first Philippine Legislature, known as the "University Act" by authority of the United States, the University currently provides the largest number of degree programs in the country.[3] The University is considered as the premier institution of higher learning in the Philippines Several (7) Philippine Presidents have attended courses in the University either as undergraduates or as postgraduate students, while 12 chief justices of the Supreme Court, 36 out of the 57 National Artists and 30 out of the 31 National Scientists are affiliated with the University.

U.P. has the most National Centers of Excellence and Development among higher education institutions in the country[9] and one of only three schools in Asia that have received institutional recognition in the Ramon Magsaysay Awards.[10]

U.P. is partly subsidized by the Philippine government. Students of the university and its graduates are referred to as "Iskolar ng Bayan" ("Scholars of the Nation"). This makes admission into the University extremely competitive. In 2006, 70,000 applicants attended to test centers to take the University of the Philippines College Admission Test (UPCAT) for undergraduate admission. Around 11,000 of the applicants were admitted for the year 2006, an acceptance rate of about 18% for the whole of the UP system.

Quality assurance

(sourced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_the_Philippines)

Most tertiary institutions, generically called higher education institutions by the Commission on Higher Education of the Philippines (CHED) are licensed, controlled, and supervised by CHED. Records from CHED showed that the country had 1,494 private institutions and 522 state-run colleges and universities, a total of 2016 HEI's as of December 17, 2007.

Accreditation for Private institutions

Voluntary accreditation of all institutions is subject to the policies of the Commission on Higher Education. Voluntary accrediting agencies in the private sector are the Philippine Accrediting Association of Schools, Colleges and Universities (PAASCU), the Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities' Commission on Accreditation (PACUCOA), and the Association of Christian Schools, Colleges and Universities Accrediting Association Inc. (ACSCU-AAI) which all operate under the umbrella of the Federation of Accrediting Agencies of the Philippines FAAP, which itself is the organization authorized by CHED.

All of the institutions accredited by these three agencies authorised by FAAP are private institutions. Under CHED's Revised Policies and Guidelines on Voluntary Accreditation in Aid of Quality and Excellence and Higher Education, there are four levels of accreditation, with Level IV being the highest.

Accreditation can be either of programs or of institutions. Almost all accreditation is of programs. However, two private universities have been granted Level IV institutional status by PAASCU (as authorised by FAAP), namely De La Salle University, and Ateneo de Manila University.

Accreditation for Public institutions

Some of the government-supported institutions have banded themselves to a National Network of Quality Assurance Agencies (NNQAA) composed of the Accrediting Association of Chartered Colleges and Universities of the Philippines (AACCUP) and the Association of Local Colleges and Universities-Commission On Accreditation (ALCU-COA). AACCUP, as well as PAASCU are active member of the International Network of Quality Assurance Agencies for Higher Education (INQAAHE), and both are members of the Asia Pacific Quality Network.

The Technical Vocational Education Accrediting Agency of the Philippines (TVEAAP) was established and registered with the Securities Exchange Commission on 27 October 1987. On 28 July 2003, the FAAP board accepted the application of TVEAAP to affiliate with the Federation.

Virtual Campuses in HE

Interesting Programmes

See:

• Polytechnic University of the Philippines
• University of the Philippines Open University

Re.ViCa Case-study

None.

References

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