A victory for UP’s GE27

The 11-member Board of Regents of the University of the Philippines (UP) did right in approving today (June 23, 2015) the petition of 27 UP Baguio students to graduate despite following an outdated general education (GE) program. In a memo, UP President Alfredo Pascual informed UP Baguio Chancellor Raymundo Rovillos of the decision of the highest governing body of the state university composed of representatives from the government, the university and other stakeholders.

The decision means that the 27 students from the College of Arts and Communication of UP Baguio, including several honor students, would be able to join tomorrow’s(June 25) commencement exercises. More importantly, they were spared the prospect of taking 15 or so units more of the GE subjects they missed.

Clearly, it was not the fault of the 27 but of some UP Baguio officials that they took GE subjects following an outdated checklist that should have been discarded following the release of an updated checklist. There were also regular consultations between students and faculty advisers each semester thus it was a puzzler how the error escaped notice until the very last moment.

The UP system is unique among local universities and colleges in the country in that it allows students to select GE subjects relevant to their courses in a menu or list, subject to approval by their advisers and colleges. The UP gives importance to its GE subjects to  “mold well-rounded professionals” and  “instill in them UP’s time-honored values.”  

With this backgrounder, the decision of UP Baguio’s University Council to bar the 27 students from graduating despite a recommendation from the CAC Executive Board for the issuance of a waiver to the missed GE subjects drew widespread criticisms. It was at that point that students, henceforth referred to in social media as the GE27,  filed a petition at the UP System level.

“As our college has emphasized, we have not violated the spirit of the [RGEP]. We have completed 15 units of GE courses in each of the three domains (Humanities, Social Sciences and Natural Sciences/Mathematics) and have thus complied with the RGEP requirements,” the 27 wrote Pascual.  “We believe that these RGEP courses, together with our core and elective courses, have helped us develop the desired skills and competencies expected of a UP graduate.”

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 Image by RAVTS