The agency in a follow-up statement said the scholarship program had 2,467 slots for incoming freshmen for the next school year.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 21) – The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) said it will not be accepting new merit scholars for this year due to budget adjustments in line with the COVID-19 fight.
Chairman Prospero de Vera said some funds for student financial assistance set for 2020 will no longer be released.
“Ang tatamaan is ‘yung student financial assistance na pinakamalaki (This will hit student financial assistance the most) so we are giving out a notice that we will not be able to give merit scholarships for this school year,” De Vera told a Senate online hearing on Thursday.
However, he said CHED will continue to support students who already have their scholarships.
“Ang mapopondohan namin doon sa natitirang pera ay ‘yung continuing lang kasi kung tatanggap kami ng bago tapos hindi mabibigyan ‘yung continuing, mas kawawa sila,” said De Vera. “At least huwag na lang tatanggap ng mga bagong scholars.”
[Translation: We can only fund those who are continuing scholars with the remaining funds because if we accept new applicants we will not be able to assist those who have existing scholarships. We will not accept new scholars at least.]
He told the hearing that reimbursement of tuition and miscellaneous fees will be affected, but this can be rectified if they will include the amount in the 2021 budget.
De Vera detailed that over ₱1 billion allotted for subsidies for persons with disabilities and reimbursement of licensure tests were also hit and another ₱2 billion was discontinued.
CHED also earlier noted that the budget department did release ₱3.6 billion to provide tertiary education subsidy stipends to 120,000 students from 404 institutions, who were enrolled for the first semester of Academic Year 2019-2020.
CHED also clarified that the transferred funds were not due to the Budget department’s earlier order to discontinue money identified as “For Later Release” in the 2020 budget to pool funds for the COVID-19 response.
It assured the students that education subsidies will continue.
This story was updated with CHED’s statement dated May 22.
