AS THE other colleges in the University modify their curriculum, certain colleges like the Faculty of Civil Law, Faculty of Engineering and the College of Science are preparing major curricular changes for next school year.
According to Civil Law Dean Augusto Aligada Jr., there is a proposal to form a board of legal education, which will remove all law colleges from the jurisdiction of the Department of Education (DepEd). The new board will be directly under the Supreme Court.
This will enable the Faculty of Civil Law to change its curriculum anytime.
At present, the College of Law of the University of the Philippines is the only school not under the DepEd.
“Law is dynamic. It is never static and so this new development will prove beneficial to us, especially the students,” Aligada said.
Also, Civil Law has revised and introduced new subjects, particularly in the freshman year.
“We converted the subject ethics into Bioethics because it is the trend right now,” Aligada said. “Some are also proposing electives like non-legal, commercial and business subjects.”
However, Aligada said he is not too keen on adding more units to the curriculum because it would impose additional financial burdens to the students.
Civil Law faculty secretary Lowell Culling said the College will strictly impose the cumulative nine-unit failure limit of the University. Also, law freshmen must maintain an average of 78 or face debarment. The average, called the quotient point index, will increase by one point as they advance every year.
Meanwhile, Engineering is planning to implement a previous curriculum, the one it had before the Commission on Higher Education (Ched) set minimum requirements in the late 90’s.
“Before Ched gave us their minimum requirements, we had more units in the Math subjects,” Engineering Dean Marilyn Mabini said.
In sharp contrast, Science is now moving to decrease units following a study by some European schools saying there is “too much to study in science courses”.
“We realized that most of the students are overloaded with up to 27 units. Some people would think that this means the student is learning a lot but it isn’t the case,” Science Dean Fortunato Sevilla III said.
Sevilla added that European schools have less students enrolling in the science courses.
“What we want to do is to find out which courses are for undergraduates so that students can focus more on them,” Sevilla said. “Some subjects can be integrated and some can even be moved to the graduate school.”
Meanwhile, the College’s biology program is developing a new course but officials refused to give details.
A hard habit to break
While the trend in UST’s colleges is to revise the curricula, Nursing is sticking to its guns.
“The success of the college is clearly reflected in the board exams. We have been constantly posting high passing marks in the board with the same curriculum so why change the winning formula?” Nursing Dean Glenda Vargas said.
Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) records show that UST Nursing has been averaging a passing rate of 90 per cent for the past five years. Its highest was in 2001, when it posted a 98.83 per cent passing rate.
“Our college was a five-year program until 1980. That was also the last time we had major changes in our curriculum. It started with a community-based curriculum and now it’s competency-based.” Vargas said.
She also attributed the College’s success in the board exams to its student selection and competent faculty members.
“If students do not meet the required grade cut-off by March, they are then removed from the college,” Vargas said. “This way only the ‘cream of the crop’ is left.”
The figure for the cut-off varies each year.
“Aside from producing highly competent nurses, the college also gives emphasis to the values of its graduates,” Vargas said. J.M.S. De Leon
