In 1978, an article titled “Higher Education in the Philippines,” which was published in the reputable Peabody Journal of Education, provided an interesting view of the Philippines—on how the value of learning takes root in the national consciousness of Filipinos. Education then is seen against the background of political turmoil and the pursuit for economic recovery as the enduring effects World War II. But the lens,with which the academic future of the country was seen, revealed much optimism:
“Most Philippine colleges and universities will probably survive, however, and, in surmounting the challenges ahead [they] will become stronger,” the late president of the University of Chicago Daniel Perlman predicted, as he wrote the cited article.
“They enter the struggle with impressive assets. One of these assets is the strong desire of the Philippine people to obtain an education. It is said that a Philippine family would sell their last carabao so their children might attend college,” he continued.
Today, it shows that Perlman had a lot of wisdom in his presumption, as more academic institutions grew larger, older, and indeed wiser, having improved curricula in more than one campus. The country, of course, already has the familiar universities, which are dubbed as the “big four”—University of the Philippines, University of Santo Tomas, Ateneo de Manila University, and De La Salle University. But there are institutions that are catching up, if not already in the same ranks with these universities, producing the nation leaders in various fields.
In fact, even those whose budding years were rattled by the havoc of the Second World War managed to find its way to stand tall in recent times. Such institutions include St. Paul University of Manila (SPUM), Far Eastern University (FEU), and University of the East (UE).
Next century-old university: St. Paul University-Manila
The landscape of higher education in the Philippines features both government-supported and private academic institutions. Religious denominations own almost half of the private colleges and universities. Such is the case with the 99-year-old SPU-Manila of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres.
The humble beginnings of SPUM sprouted from the swampy district of Malate in 1911. It was initially a house for novitiates of the congregation. A year later, it started to teach children in kindergarten, paving the way for the establishment of the St. Paul’s Institution. Eventually, the school developed into a college in 1936, offering elementary, secondary and tertiary levels of education. The college became known as St. Paul College of Manila in 1940, whose year was highlighted by the opening of its own conservatory of music.
But after a year, the college had to close as the violent invasion of the Japanese forces ravaged the Manila. Invaders took over the structure, desecrating especially the congregation’s oldest chapel in the country that then was made to billet more than a hundred corpses of massacred victims.
Rehabilitation only followed after the liberation of the city in 1946. The college administration braved to continue despite the aftermath of the war. Hard work paid off when in the ‘50s the college opened its administration building and lauded its SPCM String Orchestra in 1951, had its Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education Program recognized in 1955, and joined the Philippine Accrediting Association of Schools, Colleges, and Universities (PAASCU) in 1957. In fact, the college was the first Philippine college that received accreditation from PAASCU.
However, it was only in 2004 when the college was conferred its name: St. Paul University Manila, after it came in the league of the St. Paul University System in the country. This was also the year when for the first time a lay president wore the helm to lead the university in the person of Wynna Marie Medina, an alumna of SPUM.
But the years before the title changed highlighted significant events in the history of SPUM. To cite, the Department of Education, Culture, and Sports revealed that the institution is one of the 17 best performing colleges and universities in the Philippines in 1992. It was also recognized by the Commission on Higher Education for its “meritorious achievements,” giving it a five-year full autonomy status in 2001. Its graduate school also made its debut in 2003.
In 2005, SPUM started to accommodate male students after being an exclusive Catholic women’s school for so long. This was enacted as part of the commitment of the university to the continuing growth and development of both the institution and education in the country.
Birth of the Far Eastern University and the University of the East
Aside from the private universities and colleges under the direction of religious groups, there exist the propriety institutions. According to Perlman, these centers are “an integral and important part of the higher education spectrum” in the Philippines, which proves to be true. This category includes FEU and UE, he added.
Starting as an institute of accountancy in 1928, which offered a three-year program that equips students to qualify for the certified public accountant examination, the Morayta-based FEU became the dream come true for Dr. Nicanor Reyes, who envisioned a school that would educate Filipinos in accounting. He established the institution with help from the Department of Economics of UP. Later on, it became known as the Institute of Accounts, Business and Finance (IABF).
The IABF fused with the Far Eastern College, which specializes in liberal arts, in 1933. This led to the full establishment of the university. But like SPUM, during the time that the war broke out, the FEU campus suffered fatal damages, such as the loss of university records, facilities, and most tragic of all, the life of its founder. This loss, however, did not stop the university from rising again. It reopened in 1945.
FEU today operates with five campuses—in Makati, Quezon City, Cavite, and two sites in Manila. Also, the FEU-Nicanor Reyes Medical Foundation was established and now is producing caliber graduates, as recent board examination results show.
Meanwhile, the University of the East has both different and similar stories to tell. First, it started small along Dasmariñas Street in Manila, with two rooms where CPA review sessions for 110 students were conducted. It was in September 1946, barely two months after Manila was freed from the foreign invasion. Dr. Francisco Dalupan, Sr. who helped Reyes in founding FEU declared a commitment to aid the country in overcoming the effects of the war. Reaping what he and his colleagues sow, four of their students notched top spots in the board examinations in 1947. This success motivated Dalupan to officially establish the Philippine College of Commerce and Business Administration (PCCBA) along R. Papa Street in Sampaloc, Manila. The following years saw increase in student population, which pulled the strings to have the campus moved to its present location along Claro M. Recto.
As the graduates consistently exhibited proficiency, which manifested in government exams, the college was permitted to establish other colleges: hence, the Colleges of Liberal Arts (College of Arts and Sciences), Business Administration (CBA), Dentistry and the Graduate School of Business Administration. On July 3, 1951, the college earned its university status and was renamed as University of the East.
Today, UE also has its own college of Law, Medicine, and Engineering, as well as the UE Graduate School, on top of the original courses that were offered. It functions in three sites—UE Caloocan, UE Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City, and the UE main campus in Manila.
Survival of learning
How academic institutions overcame the struggles of the times, especially after the war, may be reflected in some points of the study titled “Sharing in Development: A Programme of Employment, Equity and Growth for the Philippines” (aka the Ranis Report), which was conducted by Gustav Ranis, former director of the Economic Growth Center at Yale University two decades after the war. According to the report, the problems that persecute higher education and its goals involve the “mismatch of graduates and needed skills, with too many in some fields and too few in others,” and the “overconcentration of students in Manila at the expense of the regional centers.”
The report primarily proposed that in order to negate these setbacks, Filipinos must understand and be motivated in the areas of economic need by providing grants or scholarships; and that institutions must not be used of profit. As responses, income taxes have been imposed on private sectors of higher education. But to avoid having these dues simply padded on students’ fees, tuition increases are regulated by certain measures, such as that with the required allocations for the development of facilities and the salaries of those who teach in the institutions.
To be sure, institutions of higher learning have made their own adjustments. Backing up the move to widen the range of courses offered in the academe to avoid graduates in crowding on only few sectors of the work force, Filipinos have moved to secure the availability of education. Prominent or well-to-do families sought to increase educational opportunities available in their communities. Also, successful alumni became philanthropists for their respective alma maters, which may have supported the institutions for their expansions. Another asset that higher education has in the Philippines is the willingness to cooperate with one another, forming linkages and avenues for forums where officials could discuss concerns regarding matters of the academe. Such is the case with PAASCU, among others.
Levine Lao - An editor and writer who has published articles in various academic journals and news dailies in and out of his home country.
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