The Varsitarian

EDUCATION in UST is now more expensive by P35 per unit.

The figure represents a three-percent increase, making the University the sixth most expensive college in the country, administration data showed.

Despite the annual hike, Thomasians should be “thankful” as the increase was not as big as the additional 10 percent levied by some schools this year, the administration said.

“[Dapat] magpasalamat ang mga estudyante,” UST comptroller Diomedes Yadao said in an interview. “UST will just maximize its budget because the three percent tuition increase is significantly lower than the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ [reported] inflation of up to five percent.”

“We also had to consider the financial capabilities of students,” he added. read more »

UST slid three places to 104th in this year’s Quacquarelli-Symonds (QS) ranking of Asia’s top universities -- behind University of the Philippines (UP) and Ateneo de Manila, which ranked 62nd and 65th, respectively, but still ahead of De La Salle University, which went down farther to No. 107.

Rather than question the methodology of the survey, the University now views the annual ranking as a chance to improve itself, an official said.

“We can always question the process and the intention of the recognizing agency. However, rather than use my precious time disproving the results, I’d rather approach it in a developmental way,” said Fr. Arthur Dingel, O.P., assistant to the Rector for planning and management. read more »

FEES for seniors at the College of Nursing have increased by up to 18 percent, following a Commission on Higher Education (Ched) directive requiring more hours of clinical duty at the start of the new school year.

From last year’s 25 hours a week, Ched has increased the weekly “Related Learning Experience” (RLE) to 30 hours. With UST hiking tuition by three percent or P2.30 per hour, Nursing seniors were required to pay P79, 717.20 this semester, or an P18,000 increase.

Nursing Central Board of Students president Honey Vaño said additional hours in RLE include skills laboratory and research. read more »

WITH AN unprecedented four out of its every 10 graduates given medals this year, the College of Tourism and Hospitality Management (CTHM) is this year’s top producer of honor graduates, displacing the Faculty of Arts and Letters, which had dominated the University honor roll in the past three years.

The youngest college in the University recorded the highest percentage of honor recipients to graduates since its foundation in 2006, with a skyrocketing 40.51 percent, or 158 of 390 CTHM students graduating with Latin honors this year.

The figure was way beyond the University-wide ratio of just one in 10 graduates getting a medal this year. read more »

AMID congressional debates on the Reproductive Health (RH) bill—the administration-backed measure seeking massive state funding for contraceptives—Thomasian women doctors went out of their way to inform the public of the ill effects of artificial methods of birth control.

In Harapan, the RH bill debate aired over ABS-CBN last May 8, Faculty of Medicine and Surgery professors Dr. Josephine Lumitao and Dr. Angelita Aguirre stood up against the controversial bill. read more »

THE NEW UST Hospital extension building is expected to be completed by the third quarter of next year, five years after the Dominican Order overturned plans to put up a P3-billion medical tower.

The project, a nine-story building, is smaller in scale compared with the scuttled 17-story structure planned in 2007.

“I presume the Rector has already approved the project because the tarpaulin and scale model would not be released without his permission,” said UST Hospital Medical Director Dr. Eduardo Vicente Caguioa.

The scale model of the project was shown to Papal Legate Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski in a tour of the hospital during the Quadricentennial festivities in January.  read more »

THE UNIVERSITY recorded lower passing rates in the recent “off-season” licensure test for civil engineers and in the May board exam for certified public accountants (CPA).

UST got a 72-percent passing rate in civil engineering with 18 of 25 examinees making the cut, lower than last year’s 78.26 percent.

“Our passing rate is not low if we use the national passing rate as the benchmark,” said Rodelio Tiburcio, civil engineering department head. “Regularly, the civil engineering passing rate ranges from 70 to 90 percent, and most of the time, the 70 percent passing score is from the May takers.”

The national passing rate went up to 38.34 percent after 1,195 of 3,117 examinees passed the exam. Last year’s national passing percentage was 36.28. read more »

THE PRESIDENT has said he was willing to be excommunicated for supporting the controversial Reproductive Health (RH) bill, but for Church law experts, all this talk of sanctions is nothing but the product of “confusion.”

Msgr. Gary Noel Formoso, judicial and episcopal vicar of the Archdiocese of Nueva Segovia, told the Varsitarian excommunication in connection with one’s pro-RH bill stand was “out of the question.”

“It was [President Aquino] who said ‘I will support this bill, even if they excommunicate me!’ This statement, I guess, is the cause of the confusion,” he said. read more »

THE UST Tigers bagged their first Millennium Basketball League (MBL) championship at the expense of the Foscon Ship Management team, 65-56, in their showdown at the Lyceum Gym last May 19.

Playing under the UST-Ironcon banner, the Tigers bested six teams in the preseason tournament.

“The players have already developed a winning attitude in preparation for the UAAP season and for the Filoil games,” said Tigers coach Pido Jarencio.

Veteran guard Jeric Fortuna was named tournament MVP, a distinction that showed in the last game where he erupted with 16 points.

Fortuna unleashed seven crucial jumpers to give the España contingent a 15-point cushion, 59 -44, in the payoff period. read more »

TIGER Paddlers dominated the Metropolitan Table Tennis Association (Metta) Cup with a 1-3-5 gold-silver-bronze medal during competitions held at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium in Manila from May 16 to 19.

The tandem of Celjun Ortalla, Junior Paddlers’ head coach, and Mark Jimenez of the Lopue’s Table Tennis Association (Loptta) squad outsmashed the duo of former UST team captain Michael Paña and Glendo Nayre of Huaching-Donic, 6-11, 11-1, 11-7, 12-10, in the team non-rank competition.

“Paña and I spent a long time playing for UST, so it was a hard fight since we know each other’s game,” Ortalla said in Filipino. read more »