By DR. DANTE G. GUEVARRA
This year adds another step to the long journey of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) as a state-chartered institution that offers the best possible quality and affordable education. No longer is it the University of the Poor but a university of qualified and talented students drawn from the broad spectrum of the various social classes, and manned by competent professors and education workers.
PUP’s journey of a hundred and one years, from a modest business school at the turn of the century, churning out ubiquitous office heads and utility workers, into what is now a national comprehensive university has contributed immensely to the emergence of a significant class of educated workers, professionals and entrepreneurs, social engineers, and builders of the nation’s business and industrial life, technological and scientific culture, moral and intellectual faculties.
It is indeed a remarkable journey that is equally noble in intent and practice.
MILESTONES
PUP is now the single biggest institution in the land, with campuses in Manila; Taguig City; Lopez and Mulanay, Quezon; Sto. Tomas, Batangas; Maragondon, Cavite; Mariveles, Bataan; Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City; and in such other places reached and serviced by the PUP Open University or Pamantasang Bayan.
It has also established linkages with business and industry, and with foreign universities through the signing of various memoranda of agreements with their representatives.
At the same time, PUP has also launched new curricular offerings, namely: Bachelor of Science in Earthquake Engineering; Master of Science in Mathematics Education; Master of Science in Information Technology; and Master of Arts in Filipino.
Three new colleges - College of Architecture and Fine Arts, the College of Tourism and Hotel and Restaurant Management, and the College of Law - have also been established.
It is heartening to note that PUP has been named by the Commission on Higher Education as the Center of Development and Excellence (CoDE); and as Virtual Center for Technology Innovation by the Department of Science and Technology.
Another sign of excellence is the granting of Level-Two accreditation status of PUP’s 28 academic programs by the Association of Accredited Colleges and Universities of the Philippines (AACUP); and several other programs qualifying for a resurvey visit by the same body.
The AACUP accreditation takes place alongside with the establishment of the Center for Expanded Tertiary Education Equivalency Program (ETEEAP) and non-traditional program.
PUP has an unbelievably low unit cost of student per semester, estimated at anywhere from
R300.00 to R400.00 (roughly 5.50 US dollar), as against the thousands of pesos in private schools. Despite this, PUP redoubles its efforts to improve, amid the age of globalizatin, of borderless economies, of free flow of ideas, people, goods, and services. 
