Utilization of the Ched-Unifast’s Tertiary Education Subsidy by the Students of a State University, Philippines

Abstract

Republic Act No. 10931 intends to provide all Filipinos with an equal opportunity to quality tertiary education as to ensure the optimized utilization of government resources in education. This study investigated how the state university students utilized the 28,000 grant, and how it directly helped their education. Data was collected during the second semester of 2018-2019. In sample size 336 students, 77% have a family income of 10,000 and below. The items purchased by students in decreasing order were: 21% cellphone, 20% laptop, 20% boarding house fee, 19% food/groceries, and 13% clothes/shoes. Only 16% of the respondents had bank accounts, 88% sent money to parents, while 10% did not inform parents. The students gave priority to products they found helpful to their studies but were not affordable without subsidy. It is therefore concluded that the top five items are considered to be the basic needs of a student to tackle college degrees in Philippine state universities; subsidy was used according to purpose; requirements of TES subsidy were mostly met; TES has initially addressed an expanded and equal access to quality tertiary education; and one of the means on how the Philippine Education System upholds the Equality Education for All (SDG4). Keywords: SDG4, Western Philippines University, student’s basic needs, CHED