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Batch 2010 finishes with flying colors
Honors abound.

Of the 4,273 graduates from UPD’s 28 degree-granting units, 1,189 are with the highest academic distinction, making one in every four an honors graduate.

Data from the Office of the University Registrar show that the cream of the crop is comprised of 25 summa cum laude (SCL; those with a cumulative weighted average grade of 1.00-1.2), 236 magna cum laude (MCL; those with a cumulative weighted average grade of 1.21-1.45) and 928 cum laude (CL; those with a cumulative weighted average grade of 1.46-1.75).

The graduates. In terms of total number of graduates at both the baccalaureate and post-graduate levels, the College of Engineering (CoE) topped the rankings with 659 followed by the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy (CSSP) and the College of Science (CS) with 465 and 350, respectively.

They are followed by the College of Business Administration (CBA) with 314 and the College of Arts and Letters (CAL) with 262.

At the baccalaureate level, the top five in the ranks are the CoE with 573 graduates, followed by CSSP (398), CS (260), CAL (241) and the College of Mass Communication (CMC; 236).

At the graduate level, the School of Labor and Industrial Relations had the most number of graduates with 103 followed by the College of Education (CEd; 95), CS (90), CBA (87) and CoE (86).

The three largest academic units in UPD are the CoE, CS and CSSP: in the 2nd semester of AY 2009-2010 they had 5,158, 2,312 and 2,110 post-graduate and baccalaureate students, respectively. The CEd and CAL are the fourth and fifth biggest with 1,824 and 1,310, respectively.

Unit rankings. The top five academic units with the most number of honors graduates are: CSSP with 208; followed by CBA (149), CMC (127), CoE (120) and CAL (108).

In terms of percentages, six had at least 40 percent of their total graduates finishing with honors.  

They are, according to rank, the CMC with 127 honors out of 249 graduates (51%), the Asian Institute of Tourism with 50 out of 103 (48%); and the School of Economics (SE) with 81 out of 167 (48%); the CBA with 149 out of 314 (47%); the CSSP with 208 out of 465 (45%); and the CAL with 108 out of 262 (41%).

Cluster rankings. Among UPD’s four main academic clusters—Science and Technology Cluster (S&T), Management and Economics Cluster (M&E), Social Sciences and Law Cluster (SSL) and Arts and Humanities Cluster (A&H)—the S&T produced the most number of graduates with 1,548, of whom 307 (42%) are honors graduates.

The SSL produced 887 graduates, 270 (30%) of whom were honors while the A&H produced 843, 300 (36%) of whom were honors. The M&E came in last with 835 graduates, 303 (36%) of whom were honors.

The S&T is the largest cluster, with 10,238 students enrolled in all seven of its academic units in the 2nd semester of AY 2009-2010. The SSL had 5,152 students in its seven academic units. The A&H had 3,953 in its five inclusive academic units and the M&E had 2,298 students in its eight academic units.

Summa scholars. The SCLs come from the four clusters, the S&T again dominating the list with 13 of the 25 hailing from academic units comprising the cluster: six from the CoE, two from the College of Home Economics, three from the CS and two from the School of Statistics.
 
The M&E cluster came in second with six SCLs: four from CBA, two from SE and one from the National College of Public Administration and Governance.

The SSL cluster produced two SCLs from the CSSP and another from the CEd. The two SCLs from the A&H cluster were from the College of Music and the CAL.
 
Among the SCLs, 20 are products of Metro Manila high schools; only two were from schools outside of Luzon. The same vein runs through the funding of their originating high schools, with 14 coming from private institutions.

Of the 11 that come from public schools, all except Ryan Oliver Lim (who spent his secondary education abroad) are products of science high schools, particularly the Philippine Science High School system.

Twelve were scholars upon entry into UP. Of the 12, nine had single grants, composed of three Oblation Scholars, two had private-funded scholarships and four were government scholars. Three had multiple grants, including two more Oblation Scholarships, which UP awards to the top 50 passers of the UP College Admission Test.

Four of the said grants are funded by the government: scholarships under the RA 7678 or the S&T Scholarship Act of 1994, the DOST-SEI Merit Scholarship, the Gov. J.R. Remulla Educational Foundation and UP’s Socialized Tuition and Financial Assistance Program (STFAP).

Two of the privately funded scholarship grants were the Pohang Iron and Steel Company (POSCO) Scholarship and the Sunlife Financial Scholarship.

—Anna Kristine E. Regidor