More public school students qualify for UP for 2nd straight year

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April 22, 2025 | 6:17pm

MANILA, Philippines — More public school students have qualified for admission to the University of the Philippines than those from private schools for the second consecutive year, based on data from this year's UPCAT results. 

Public school students, including graduates from science high schools, accounted for 55% of qualifiers, while 45% came from private schools, according to the university's analysis of the UPCAT 2025 shared on Tuesday, April 22. 

The university sent admission notices to 17,996 successful UPCAT qualifiers on Tuesday morning — representing just 13% of the over 135,000 students who took the test last year.  

UP draws over 100,000 applicants each year but admits only a fraction of that number across its eight universities and 17 campuses. As a result, the UPCAT — worth 60% of a student’s admission score — has become one of the most competitive college entrance exams in the country.

The stringent admissions process at the country's premier public university has long raised concerns about equitable access, particularly for students from disadvantaged backgrounds who many believe should be the primary beneficiaries of state-funded higher education. 

'Reveral' seen

But the university, based on the recent UPCAT results, believes it is seeing a "reversal" of the kind of students mostly qualifying for UP. 

The UPCAT results in 2024 and 2025 show public school students have now twice outnumbered private school graduates after at least two years of the opposite pattern. Last year, most or 56.3% of qualifiers came from public schools, similar to this year's 55%.  

The share of non-science public schools also increased from last year's 29.8% to 31% this year.

"This is a significant figure because just three years ago, the numbers were almost the reverse," UP President Angelo Jimenez said at a press conference on Tuesday.

During the pandemic, when UP suspended its entrance exam due to logistical hurdles and temporarily shifted to a grades-based admissions system, private school graduates made up most qualifiers. 

Specifically, in UPCA 2022, only 43.6% of those admitted came from public schools, while 56.4% were from private institutions. The gap narrowed slightly in 2023, with public school students making up 49.8% of qualifiers — just shy of overtaking their private school counterparts.

Francisco De Los Reyes, director of UP's Office of Admissions, explained that the pandemic-era application process disadvantaged many public school students as campuses were off-limits during the lockdown.

De Los Reyes told Philstar.com that besides the lack of internet access at home, several public school students also did not benefit from the guided application process that schools typically provide during in-person classes. 

Geographic diversity

The university also reported an increasing geographic diversity among successful UPCAT qualifiers. 

While Metro Manila still accounts for 30% of qualifiers, other regions showed improved representation.

"While Metro Manila still has the largest share, we see students coming from more provinces," Jimenez said.

After Metro Manila, the most qualifiers came from Laguna (6%), Cavite (4%), and just below 4% each from Cebu, Bulacan, and Rizal.

Strategic placement of additional testing centers appears to have made a difference in some regions. "In Davao de Oro, we typically have less than 10 qualifiers. After we opened a testing center in Nabunturan, Davao de Oro for UPCAT 2025, we now have 31 qualifiers," Jimenez said.

Distribution across UP campuses

UP Diliman — the university's flagship campus — continues to receive the largest share of successful applicants at 32.9%, though this represents a decrease from last year's 35%. 

Over 6,200 students (34.8%) received admission notices to campuses outside of Diliman, Los Baños and Manila, compared to last year's 5,057 students (30%).

Socioeconomic inclusion

For Jimenez, the socioeconomic profile of this year's UPCAT qualifiers is "more telling."

About 21.5% of qualifiers came from households with annual incomes of P200,000 or below.

The number of "first-generation" college students who qualified for UP has also doubled from 6.6% last year to 13% this year. 

"They are the first in their families from four generations to step into college. And so today you can say that inch by inch, one family at a time, we are starting more and more people on a journey to break the cycle of poverty and underprivileged-ness," Jimenez said. "This is very special to us."