Private colleges and universities in the Philippines were closed late last year for a day of silent protest. Following the October 12, 1997 congressional ratification of a "Magna Carta" for students (House Bill Number 9935), the country's Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations (CCPEA)--a national federation of sectarian and proprietary colleges and universities--called for the action to make public their concerns about several provisions in the new Bill. Administrators of the country's almost 1,000 private colleges and universities fear that the student Magna Carta could jeopardize their ability to manage and to keep schools viable.

The Bill's provisions found to be especially objectionable to the administrators included the ex officio membership on Boards of Regents/Trustees for student government heads; student membership on the School Fee Board--a committee able to overrule an institution's Board of Trustees; the right of students to overturn unpopular administrative policies by referendum; and, most objectionable of all, student participation on faculty hiring and promotions boards.

The county's current population of 68 million is expected to reach 70 million by the year 2000, and to surpass 100 million by 2020. Education is a burden that the public sector is not able to carry satisfactorily. Nearly 1.8 million students now participate in various tertiary-level institutions (two-year colleges, four-year, and comprehensive and technical universities) at 350 public and 950 private colleges and universities. Private higher education institutions already enroll approximately 79 percent of the student population, with state schools taking care of only 21 percent.

Apart from the University of the Philippines--the country's premier state institution--the quality of most other public colleges and universities is limited by insufficient resources. Most of the best schools are private ones. Thus, the private sector is expected to play a pivotal role in the development and improvement of Philippine higher education.

The House Bill has become a political issue as the proponents, looking toward national elections in 1998, are seeking favor with students, who constitute a sizable voting block of young adults. The Philippine constitution considers 18-year-olds as eligible to vote; hence, in a country where two-thirds of the population is 25 years or younger, the youth vote determines the winners.

President Fidel V. Ramos and speaker of the House, Jose de Venecia--himself a candidate for the presidency--recently called for a series of meetings with legislators, students, and college administrators in an effort to iron out differences and reach a compromise on the more objectionable features of the Magna Carta.

The situation is symbolic of what ails Philippine higher education: the politicization of even the internal management of academic life, the blurring of distinctions between learners and teachers, and public ambivalence toward private colleges and universities, which are needed but also resented due to their profit-making orientation as teaching institutions that do little or no research.