CHED eyes expanding moratorium on new courses

By Rainier Allan Ronda (The Philippine Star) Updated November 24, 2010

MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) is looking into expanding a moratorium on new course programs which can be opened by colleges and universities in the country.

CHED chair Patricia Licuanan said that they are checking if other course programs are “over-subscribed,” which could lead to an oversupply of graduates of these courses.

In an interview with education reporters, Licuanan said among the courses that are being considered to be covered by the moratorium are criminology and maritime education.

Licuanan said CHED based its review on “empirical evidence,” data on all courses offered by the schools under CHED and the number of enrollees per course.

Last month, CHED imposed a moratorium on the opening of new course programs on business administration, nursing, education teacher, hotel and restaurant management, and information technology.

The moratorium, implemented by virtue of CHED Memorandum Order 32 issued last month, effectively stops colleges and universities throughout the country from opening these courses.

Licuanan said there was a need to stop more schools from opening certain courses to prevent the “oversupply” of their graduates from getting worse.

She added that allowing schools to open such courses also caused some problems on the quality of their curriculum.

“Essentially, it’s just a moratorium. We are trying to rationalize things, encourage undersubscribed programs and discourage oversubscribed programs,” Licuanan earlier said.

Under the memorandum, the programs covered by the moratorium are the baccalaureate, masteral and doctoral degrees in business administration; baccalaureate, masteral and doctoral degrees in nursing; baccalaureate degrees in elementary and secondary education as well as masteral, doctoral, and doctor of philosophy in education; baccalaureate degrees in hotel and restaurant management and hospitality management as well as masteral and doctoral degrees in these two courses; baccalaureate, masteral and doctoral degrees in information technology.