es from the Higher Education Development Fund and are granted full autonomy from government supervision and control. Level IV accreditation is reserved for academic programs considered to be comparable in quality to those of internationally renowned universities. To date, there is only one institution in the country whose programs have been granted Level IV status –– De La Salle University (Pijano, 2003).
The most current online list of AACUUP assessed programs is available HERE.
UNIVERSITY HIGHER EDUCATION
The structure of the tertiary system in the Philippines in terms of awards and style of programs offered at Philippine universities strongly resembles the US higher education system.
Admission Requirements: Entrance to universities and other institutions of higher education is dependent on the possession of a high school Certificate of Graduation and in some cases on the results of the National Secondary Achievement Test (NSAT), or in many colleges and universities the results of their own entrance examinations. NSAT is administered to fourth-year high school students to gauge the quality of the individual institutions they are attending, it was not designed or intended as an admission test, but has nonetheless served that purpose for some institutions. Privately administered testing programs through the Center for Educational Measurement (CEM) are also widely used by colleges for admissions purposes. The two most common ones are the College Scholastic Aptitude Test (CSAT) and the Admission Test for Colleges and Universities (ATCU). From 1973 to 1994, the National College Entrance Examination (NCEE) was used for admission to post-secondary degree programs; it was abolished and replaced by the NSAT because it was considered by many not to be discriminative enough. The Philippine Education Placement Test (PEPT) is a national examination designed to evaluate the grade level of students returning to the school system or seeking admission to college based on knowledge and skills gained through formal and non-formal methods.
Programs and Degrees
Stage I: Bachelor’s (Batsilyer) degree programs are a minimum of four years in length. During the first two years of study students are required to take general education courses (63 credits), with courses counting towards the major usually being undertaken in the last two years of the program. Some institutions offer five-year programs in science, pharmacy and agriculture (200 credits). Engineering, architecture (226 credits) and music programs normally require five years of study.
Some institutions offer a two-year (generally 70 credit) Associate (Asoyado) degree program, usually in arts, science or commerce. Graduates of these programs can, if desired, transfer into the last two years of a bachelor degree program. An increasingly popular associate and certificate program is midwifery and the sole tertiary-level credential in the field is the two-year Graduate in Midwifery certificate. A four-year Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) is the sole entry-level degree for nursing. Graduates are required to then take licensing examinations.
The post-secondary programs leading to the Doctor of Dental Medicine and Doctor of Veterinary Medicine normally require six years of study, usually involving two years of appropriate preliminary studies and four years of specialized studies.
Stage II: Master of Art/Science (Masterado, Dalubhasa, or Kadalubhasaan) degrees usually require two years of full-time study and a minor thesis or comprehensive examinations. The entrance requirement for most master degree programs is a bachelor degree in an appropriate discipline, with an average grade equal to or better than 2.00, 85 percent or B.
Some professional degrees, such as law and medicine are undertaken following a first bachelor degree. The first degree awarded in medicine is the Doctor of Medicine (M.D.), which generally requires that students study basic medical sciences for the first two years followed by two years in clinical rotation. This is generally followed by a one-year internship, after 