UP scholarship program adds more benefits for poor students
Some 300 successful examinees of this year’s University of the Philippines College Admission Test (Upcat) will receive scholarships under the state university’s Lingap Iskolar Program which seeks to make a UP education “within reach” to poor students from remote and underserved areas.
The 300 incoming UP first-year students for Academic Year 2026 to 2027 will be the beneficiaries of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed on Aug. 1 between UP and the Land Bank of the Philippines (Landbank).
Under the MOU, Landbank employees will donate money to the UP scholarship program which provides housing, food, communication, transportation and educational materials assistance to beneficiaries.
The government bank will also sponsor four professorial chair grants and partner up with the state university for the Expanded Cash Lite-Campus Program.
“We are bringing in students not because they just simply qualify, but because they need help,” UP President Angelo Jimenez said in a statement sent to the Inquirer.
Landbank Executive Vice President Leila Martin said the memorandum strengthens the collaboration between the two government institutions, particularly on the “mutual and shared mission in making quality education more inclusive and more accessible.”
A joint initiative of the UP Office of the President and the Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs launched last year, the Lingap Iskolar Program offers assistance to incoming students from geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas and low-income backgrounds.
P165K per scholar
These are the students who, despite passing the highly competitive Upcat, choose not to enroll, because their families cannot afford college life expenses—even with free tuition in the state university in accordance with Republic Act No. 10931 (the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act).
These include renting a dorm room and spending on daily meals and transportation fare.
To qualify, the annual family income of beneficiaries must be P135,000 or below and they should not be the recipient of other scholarships.
“Every year, we see too many brilliant young Filipinos—top of their class, full of potential—decide not to pursue their UP dream. And every year, that breaks our heart,” Jimenez said in an earlier briefing on the scholarship program.
“The Lingap Iskolar Program is our promise that we will do better by them. That a UP education will be truly within reach, wherever they come from,” he added.
According to Jimenez, of about 18,000 who pass the Upcat, some 1,500 from remote areas opt not to enroll at any of the 17 UP campuses nationwide.
Last year, the program provided 194 Lingap scholars around P165,000 each in financial aid, plus mentoring support coordinated by the Office of Student Affairs (OSA) in their respective campuses.
Interested students may coordinate with the UP Office of Student Development Services or their respective constituent university’s OSA within the confirmation period set by the UP Office of Admissions.
This year’s Upcat was administered on Aug. 2 and Aug. 3 in 117 testing centers nationwide.
