WHAT ELSE SHOULD THE COMMISSION ON HIGHER EDUCATION BE DOING?

WHAT ELSE SHOULD THE COMMISSION ON HIGHER EDUCATION BE DOING?


To be perfectly honest, I am not too conversant with what the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) is actually doing right now. So for the purposes of this essay, I will focus less on what CHED says it is doing, and more on what it should be doing—in my opinion, of course.


Fortunately, I am not alone in this line of thinking. The Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM 2) has already publicly stated what many have long suspected: CHED lacks strategic focus. I will take off from that point.


Let us get the obvious out of the way. CHED’s regulatory function—accreditation, compliance, tuition oversight—is a no-brainer. That is administrative work. Necessary, yes, but hardly inspiring. Regulation alone will not move Philippine higher education forward.


If CHED is to have a strategic focus, it should be on its developmental function—assuming it fully recognizes development as part of its mandate. And legally speaking, it should. Under Republic Act No. 7722, the Higher Education Act of 1994, CHED is not just a regulator. It is supposed to be a planner, a coordinator, and a driver of innovation in higher education.

This brings us to research and development (R&D).

Many people forget—or were never told—that CHED is mandated to coordinate R&D among higher education institutions. Through policies like the National Higher Education Research Agenda (NHERA), Centers of Excellence and Development, and grants under the Higher Education Development Fund, CHED is supposed to ensure that universities are not just teaching factories, but engines of knowledge creation.


At the risk of ruffling a few feathers, I am willing to say this outright: State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) should be the brain trust of our local government units, wherever they may be.

No, I am not saying that academics in SUCs are the only intelligent people in the provinces and regions. But if an LGU wants to form a local think tank, SUCs should be the first stop, not the last. They are publicly funded, locally embedded, and filled with people trained to analyze problems systematically.


This is where CHED should step in more decisively. It should actively coordinate the R&D efforts of SUCs, in close tandem with the Department of Science and Technology (DOST). The delineation is clear enough: CHED focuses on academic research and capacity-building; DOST focuses on commercialization and national technology goals. These are complementary, not competing, roles.

In fact, I would go further. SUC presidents should be given ex officio seats in Provincial Development Councils (PDCs) and Regional Development Councils (RDCs). If higher education is supposed to serve development, then universities must have a voice where development plans are actually made.


Another area CHED should seriously look into is student welfare beyond scholarships. Why not document the experience of the UP Infirmary and explore replicating similar healthcare models in SUCs nationwide? Access to basic healthcare should not depend on whether a student happens to be enrolled in Diliman.


CHED should also have direct coordination with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to assist indigent students—not only with tuition, but with food, housing, mental health support, and emergency needs. A student who is hungry, sick, or homeless will not benefit much from “free tuition” alone.


EDCOM 2’s findings should be a wake-up call. Despite a massive budget increase—over 600 percent from 2013 to 2023—CHED’s staffing barely grew. More troubling is the absence of updated, coherent strategic plans. The result is duplication of programs, saturated courses, and universities operating in isolation from national and regional priorities.

CHED was created to give direction to the higher education ecosystem. Thirty years later, that sense of direction feels blurred. So the real question is not whether CHED has the mandate. It does. The question is whether it has the courage—and clarity—to finally act like the strategic institution it was meant to be.


RAMON IKE V. SENERES

www.facebook.com/ike.seneres iseneres@yahoo.com senseneres.blogspot.com 09088877282/03-11-2027

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