The Commission on Higher Education has honored Albay Rep. Joey Salceda with the “Father of Free Tuition in College” award, a special recognition for his having crafted the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education (UAQTE) law.
Ched chairman Prospero de Vera and Commissioner Aldrin Darilag, together with Ryan Estevez, executive director of the Unified Student Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education, presented the award to Salceda during the recent Ched Gawad Parangal rites for local universities and colleges of local government units in the Bicol region.
President Rodrigo Duterte signed the UAQTE into law in 2017.
It has vastly reformed and expanded the country’s college education system since then.
It grants free tuition to students in all state universities and colleges and LUCs. Its benefits are also available to high school students and college drop-outs who opt to instead pursue technical-vocational courses or skills training programs of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority and its accredited training institutions.
Popularly known as the free tuition law, the UAQTE also directly benefits middle-income families whose children may not qualify for free tuition in SUCs and LUCs but may avail of financial assistance through concessional loans when they enroll in private colleges.
The loans are payable when they graduate and get employed and their salary level reaches the minimum annual gross income or “compulsory repayment threshold.”
In his speech during the awards rites, Salceda said “free college tuition has clearly made a difference,” but as education demands constant reinvention, his position on tertiary education has begun to evolve.
“Although employment is currently still governed by the ‘tyranny of college diplomas,’ the Fourth Industrial Revolution demands highly competitive skills required by its globalized and ‘hyper technologized economy,’” he said.
He proposed that college students be also taught TESDA courses related to their academic discipline, so they earn both a diploma and TESDA certification when they graduate.
Salceda cited the need for a closer CHED-TESDA partnership that can be most viable in community colleges, “whose graduates are in search of real career opportunities and value-adding education.”
“If we will pursue truly universal access to higher education, we must support community colleges that typically cater to the poorest and most underserved segments of the enrolled population. Nowhere does free tuition matter more than in community colleges, where many working students enroll,” he said.
