Status and Condition of Corporatization Strategies of State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) in Region III in the Philippines

Abstract

The right to free access to quality education of citizens extends to tertiary level education. This Constitutional provision creates increasing demands for State Universities and Colleges (SUC’s) which in turn exerts pressure on the budgetary capacity of the government to finance such education. To strike the balance between equity of access and quality of education, SUCs employed corporatization strategies to generate income and finance its operations. The study looks into the strategies employed by SUCs in Region III in the Philippines and analyzes matters related to the practice of corporatization principles. By using descriptive correlation design, the study showed that respondent SUCs in Region III are: a) diverse in many aspects of their operations, b) vary in the modes of generating income, descriptively measured from “sometimes” to “often” except the collection of tuition fees which has been rated as “very often” applied as corporatization strategy, c) have variety in income utilization ranging from 46 percent to 51 percent; d) stakeholders are found “very satisfied” in the manner SUCs in Region III used their income, e) are rated with varying interpretations in terms of corporatization strategies and performance of their fourfold functions, e) have marked differences in terms of income utilization except in corporatization activities which marked as “not significant”. Finally, it was found that employees’ satisfaction and the performance of the four fold functions of instruction, research, extension and production are significantly correlated. It is recommended that stakeholders’ engagement in planning and organizing programs and projects of SUCs in Region III be enhanced.