4,000 faculty receive CHED scholarships

MANILA, Philippines – More than 4,000 faculty and staff from higher education institutions across the country will receive the first batch of scholarships under the K-12 transition program of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED).

CHED said 1,850 grantees will pursue master’s degrees, while another 1,379 will take doctorate degrees based on the results of the evaluations for the first batch of scholarships granted by the commission.

“Through the graduate education scholarships, CHED aims to boost the number of faculty and staff with graduate degrees to 70 percent by 2020,” said the agency.

Only 39 percent of faculty in the country have master’s degrees, with only half of them corresponding to their teaching specialization. In other ASEAN countries, the rates range from 50 to 70 percent, CHED noted.

CHED said the transition period brought about by the K-12 program gives college teachers a rare opportunity to pursue graduate studies.

While it has an existing faculty development program, CHED said failure to complete the program on time was mainly due to heavy teaching loads.

With the additional two years in basic education, enrollment in college is expected to decline in the next five years, enabling educators to pursue other activities such as research or graduate studies.

“To provide support to higher education institutions and personnel during this period, while leveraging this opportunity to upgrade the quality of higher education, CHED has designed a comprehensive range of developmental programs through the K-12 transition program,” CHED said.

“Programs include local and foreign scholarships and grants for faculty and staff, full-time or part-time, permanent and non-permanent, and for higher education institutions,” it added.

A total of 15,000 scholarships will be provided by the commission until 2021.