ALAM denounces for-sale master’s diploma in Pasay

ALAM denounces for-sale 

master’s diploma in Pasay

          What is this, Mayor Antonio Calixto?

Have officials of the City University of Pasay (CUP) or Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Pasay (PLP) turned the school into a marketplace for master’s degree?

Alab ng Mamamahayag (ALAM) President Atty. Berteni Causing was confronted by this question after he received infromation from reliable sources that 17 master’s degree candidates of CUP orally defended their theses before three alternating panels of examiners and thesis advisers on February 4, 2012 inside Shylin Restaurant along Macapagal Avenue in Pasay City.

Causing was also informed that the Board of Regent of CUP has formed a committee to  look into the alleged oral defense conspiracy that dragged the name of CUP President  Ayet Ostrea, and Graduate School Dean Dr. Gloria Yan.

ALAM chairman Jerry S. Yap noted that corrupt leadership makes the city university corrupt, too.

Causing said that in a normal handling of oral defense, a minimmum of two (2) hours are used for one master’s diploma candidate, translating into four (4) candidates in one day.

“By just letting pass 17 master’s candidates in one day, in one session, and in likely one shaolin or Shylin restaurant is highly improbable. The only way for this to happen is when the school officials concerned allow this impossibility to happen on paper.  What then is the interest of these officials for allowing it to happen?  Nothing else but monetary gain,” Causing stressed.

Causing got the information from a graduate school professor who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal.

 Moreover, ALAM learned that it is not normal for a school to allow the defense of theses outside the campus.

      ALAM further gathered that from the total number of 49 master’s candidates who will graduate this school year, 29 took their oral defense inside the school campus and 20 candidates held their oral thesis defense outside of the school at two private restaurants in Pasay City. 

Of the 20 candidates, 17 held their oral examinations in one day only.

          Further impropriety is the fact that the university has no authority from the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to offer the master's degrees concerned.

      Additionally, the same theses defense went beyond the capacity of professors to handle defenses.

           For any professor involved, he or she can handle theses defense as a panel member for a maximum of three defenses a semester.

         A graduate school professor of the city university expressed alarm over the “growing impression of the public that the graduate school is engaged in mass production of master’s degrees and therefore is perceived to be a diploma mill.”