UST suspends admission of new freshmen in journalism, legislative management programs

The University of Santo Tomas has suspended the admission of new freshmen for its journalism and legal management programs for academic year 2016-2017 due to the low number of enrollees.

In an article on The Flame, the official student publication at UST's Faculty of Arts and Letters, Assistant Dean Narcisa Tabirara said the two programs would not push through this year because of the low turnout of qualified applicants brought by the roll out of the K-12 Program.

Under the new basic education program, most high school seniors from last school year have to go through two more years of senior high school before pursuing a college degree.

Tabirara said only six applicants were qualified to enroll for Journalism and only 11 for LegMa, way below the ideal class size composed of at least 40 students.

She said the qualified applicants could pursue either Communication Arts or Political Science for the academic year.

“We offered them to go to Communication Arts (CA) or to Political Science (PolSci) instead. Some did, others chose not to because they were really bent on [their chosen] program,” she said.

Other applicants who choose to pursue their preferred program would have to look for another school.

"The Philippines had begun the transition to the K-12 system so there are degree programs that will not have freshmen since graduates from very few K12-ready schools are not that much," Journalism Coordinator and Assistant Professor Jeremaiah Opiniano said in his Facebook account on Sunday.

"UST offered initially 16 degree programs, though Journalism was added last December. However, since less than ten students got accepted in Journalism, they were transferred to Communication Arts this incoming academic year," Opiniano added. —Joseph Tristan Roxas/NB, GMA News