MANILA – The COVID-19 pandemic changed not only how schools deliver lessons to students, but also how higher education institutions picked their incoming freshmen.

For the University of the Philippines (UP), this meant cancelling the conduct of the UP College Admissions Test (UPCAT), one the toughest college entrance exams taken by hundreds of thousands of applicants annually.

Instead, the country’s premier state university will evaluate applicants based on their high school records, UP said in a statement last Friday.

The university announced it would start accepting applications for first year students for Academic Year 2021-2022 on January 7, 2021 through an online portal.

“The University Councils, the highest academic policymaking body of the constituent universities in the UP System, approved an additional assessment of incoming first-year students by academic units to qualify for a degree program, if deemed necessary,” the university said.

“Applicants will be notified of such assessment or other additional requirements after the evaluation of their High School Records,” it added.

UP also listed the following steps for freshman applicants for the next academic year:

• Applicants shall accomplish Form 1 (Personal Data Sheet) electronically and upload their photo and electronic signature.
• High schools shall be requested to log on to the Grades Submission link to accomplish Form 2 (High School Records) on behalf of the applicants. An online survey was sent earlier to high schools using their registered email addresses in the records of the UP Office of Admissions (OAdms).
• If a high school has not received the email of the UP OAdms, applicants from that school must inform the Office of the school’s current official email address via dataproc.oadms@up.edu.ph to facilitate communications between the UP OAdms and the high school.

UP said it would also coordinate with high schools for “alternative modes of submission” as it acknowledged that not all applicants may not have access to devices and internet connectivity.

Deadline for the submission of applications is on February 15, 2021.

UP OAdms Director Francisco Delos Reyes earlier said the new admission process would be “inclusive.”

“Ito ay magiging inclusive. Ito ay mayroong respeto sa diversity. Ito ay mayroong consideration sa excellence. At ito ay mayroong equity,” he said.

• UP assures ‘inclusive’ admission process during pandemic

Aside from UP, other colleges and universities have also waived from conducting in-person entrance tests. Some shifted to online entrance exams, while others decided to base admission on high school grades.

• Several colleges, universities waive entrance exams due to COVID-19 crisis: CHED

— Report from Jaehwa Bernardo, ABS-CBN News

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