Edcom 2: CHEd should crack down on ‘diploma mills’ for teachers
The Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) should address the proliferation of diploma mills offering master’s and doctoral degrees in teacher education and public administration and revisit policies that have created an “imbalance” among graduates, the Second Congressional Commission on Education (Edcom 2) said on Saturday.
A recent study by Edcom found that hiring and promotion policies in the government have contributed to the “proliferation of poor-quality graduate education programs in the country,” especially in teacher education degree programs.
“Most specialized graduate programs are mainly offered by private universities and concentrated in Metro Manila, limiting accessibility to diverse options and specializations outside the National Capital Region, and out of reach for low-income students,” said the commission, citing the study.
This system has resulted in the proliferation of “diploma mills” for teacher education- and public administration-related graduate programs, since “existing policies fail to discriminate based on the quality of where graduate credits or degrees were obtained,” the commission noted.
‘Transactional’ pursuit
“There is a strong public perception that the pursuit of advanced degrees has at times become transactional—a means to gain promotion points rather to enhance teaching competence,” said Edcom executive director Karol Mark Yee.
“This sentiment is fueled by a perceived failure to properly regulate institutions, leading to a situation where, as many have pointed out, low-quality or ‘fly-by-night’ schools provide the same career benefits as high-quality universities,” he added.
To remedy these gaps, the Edcom study suggested that CHEd should intensify its governance and quality assurance by adopting a “tiered regulatory approach” for higher education institutions offering graduate programs.
The study also recommended that CHEd shift away from a uniform policy to account for the differences in institutional capacity, program quality and regional context.
“This regulatory shift should be complemented by action from the Department of Education (DepEd), with the recommendation that DepEd should consider the quality of HEI (higher education institution) and graduate programs for career progression purposes, moving beyond simply accepting degrees from any CHEd-recognized institution,” the study said.
Low completion rates
According to Edcom, its study, conducted through a research fellowship with the Ateneo de Manila University, found a “systemic issue”: Incentives given by government policies that are designed to uplift educators are “inadvertently degrading instructional quality.”
Data submitted by HEIs to the CHEd from school years 2012-2013 to 2023-2024 showed that more than half of the country’s total enrollment in graduate programs was concentrated in the education field.
“This demand is sustained primarily by vertical qualification requirements and point-based promotion systems within DepEd,” the Edcom said.
However, the commission noted the “severely low completion rates” in these graduate studies.
Eight out of 10 graduate students are said to be unable to complete their degree programs within the prescribed period of two years for master’s degrees and four years for doctoral degrees.
Edcom’s study also warned that specialized degrees like those related to science, technology, engineering and mathematics are “being marginalized,” leading to an imbalance in the production of specialized graduates needed for public schools.
