4 civil engineering schools in Phl cited

MANILA, Philippines - The House committee on higher and technical education has cited four universities in the country as the top civil engineering schools based on the exemplary showing of their graduates in the last two licensure examinations held by the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC).

Pasig City Rep. Roman Romulo, committee chairman, identified the four leading civil engineering schools as De La Salle University-Manila with a passing rate of 98.46 percent; University of the Philippines-Diliman (92.39 percent); University of Santo Tomas (91.79 percent); and the Technological University of the Philippines-Manila (83.87 percent).

Romulo said the four schools were the only ones with 50 or more examinees and with at least 80 percent of their examinees passing the last two civil engineer licensure examinations, citing PRC data.

“As in the past, we are reporting this out to help consumers – up-and-coming civil engineering students and their parents – ascertain for themselves as to where they will most likely get the greatest value for their hard-earned tuition money,” Romulo said.

“There may be smaller schools with at least 80 percent of their examinees passing the last two eligibility tests for civil engineers, but these institutions were not counted because they had fewer than 50 examinees,” he said.

According to the PRC, 4,710 or about 46.24 percent of 10,185 examinees passed the last two civil engineer qualifying tests in May and November last year.

PRC and Commission on Higher Education (CHED) records show that the country has a total of 227 tertiary schools accredited to train prospective civil engineers.

Civil engineers oversee the design, construction and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including works like roads, bridges, canals, dams and buildings.

Based on CHED data, Romulo said the top five most heavily subscribed programs in college are education, nursing, criminology, accounting and civil engineering.

He said graduates of these courses must first pass a national licensure examination before they can legally practice their profession.

Last year, CHED came up with a new list of priority courses to cope with the growing gap between the skills of graduates and the available jobs in the market.

The priority courses include natural sciences (specifically biology, chemistry, marine biology, applied physics, geology, earth science); psychology; mathematics (applied mathematics, statistics or applied statistics); accountancy, and social work.