The University of the Philippines (UP) announced on Tuesday, November 10, that it will not be holding its annual UP College Admission Test (UPCAT) for incoming freshman students for school year 2021-2022 due to the continuing threat of Coronavirus in the country.
The university said in their statement posted on UP’s official website that councils within the UP system “unanimously decided” to do away with the UPCAT “in light of logistical issues.”
“The University Councils (UCs) of the eight constituent universities (CUs) of the University of the Philippines System, as the highest academic bodies of the CUs, unanimously decided that there will be no UPCAT for the intake of first year students in Academic Year 2021-2022,” the state university announced.
Majority of the UC members believed that it’s not possible to manage the UPCAT this year, which will require around 1,600 testing personnel that will be deployed to 94 testing centers throughout the country, according to UP.
“Taking into account the uncertain trajectory and uneven spread of COVID-19 in different parts of the Philippines, the majority of the university council members did not deem it feasible to administer the usual UPCAT involving around 1,600 testing personnel deployed to 94 testing centers throughout the archipelago,” UP said.
The UC members also did not consider switching into an online entrance exam since the length of the exam and variety of items would require a strong Internet connection, UP added.
According to UP’s statement, the UP Board of Regents, the highest governing body in the UP System, instructed the Office of Admissions (OAdms) to come up with a “modified freshmen admissions system” in light to the pandemic by February 2021.
"This includes the use of big data analytics to arrive at a UP admission score model, which the OAdms, together with other concerned offices, is currently developing, as well as the determination by academic units of an additional layer of screening for particular programs, if deemed necessary," The university said.
The Office of Admissions moved the start of the application period to December 2020, and said that the exact date will be announced later.
If there has been no pandemic happening this year, the admission test would have been scheduled last Oct. 10 to 11 this year, UP said.
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