The Mandaue City College
CDN FILE PHOTO
Starting next school year, the city government-run Mandaue City College will no longer accept students from outside the city.
This decision was announced by Mandaue City Mayor Luigi Quisumbing during his first State of the City Address (Soca) on Wednesday, saying it is part of reforming the MCC.
He said he wanted to reinvent the city college to cater to only Mandauehanons after he learned that only 45 percent of the about 2,000 students of MCC are actually residents or native of Mandaue City.
“This way, we will be able to give priority to the growing higher education needs of our young and lifelong learners,” Quisumbing said during his speech.
He said most of the students of MCC actually came from other towns and cities of Cebu, and even from Negros provinces and Mindanao.
Quisumbing, interviewed after the Soca, pointed out that the city is subsidizing the school at around P15 million to P20 million every year and would only be fair to ensure that only Mandaue residents get to benefit from the tuition subsidy provided by the college.
“But you know, it is a little bit more than that because some of the salaries (of MCC’s personnel) are (paid by) the City Hall. Ok ra man unta nako (It would have been fine for me), if the beneficiaries taga (are from) mandaue g’yud, pero (but) when almost half of the population came from other places, it is not also fair to Mandaue, if we continue to subsidized their education,” he told reporters.
But Quisumbing clarified that the current students of MCC who are from other places will not be affected and will be allowed to stay until they graduate.
The school caters to about 1,192 students per school year, with tuition not exceeding P6,000 per semester, according to city information officer Nemesio “Jun” Veliganio Jr..
It offers bachelor’s degrees in elementary and secondary education, social welfare, information technology and industrial technology.
The college is currently housed at the Mandaue Cultural and Sports Complex, but the city government is now looking at sites where a new building for MCC will be constructed, the mayor said.
“We are looking to transfer them to a new location. We are considering two. Some (departments) have to move, but you know the kids deserve a permanent home, so we are looking to established that, hopefully. We’re talking to one of the national agencies concerned now for the transfer of one of their facilities and if we are able to effect that, then we will have a new home for the Mandaue City College,” he added.
According to Quisumbing, they were also mulling the idea of offering scholarships to the top three graduates of the city’s public high schools but they were still ironing mechanics on how this should be done.
“This will ensure that these hard working and deserving students will have access to higher education after graduation,” Quisumbing said.