Congressman Michael “Mike” Defensor said he wants to double to 17,000 the number of students enrolled in the local government-run Quezon City University (QCU).
“We want QCU to offer a wider range of bachelor’s degree programs to draw in more students,” Defensor, who is running for Quezon City mayor, said in a statement on Friday.
“Our target is to increase the university’s enrollment by 15 percent every year until we double it,” Defensor said.
Defensor said he envisions QCU producing highly-qualified college graduates who are readily employable, and who can help lift their families out of poverty.
QCU students became eligible for free tuition and miscellaneous fees last year under the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act.
“We will form a partnership between the University of the Philippines (UP) and QCU to aggressively develop the latter’s liberal arts education,” said Defensor, a UP alumnus.
“We want QCU to have a strong liberal arts education, so we will hire highly qualified faculty to teach general education courses,” he added.
At present, QCU offers only six bachelor’s degree programs in Accountancy, Entrepreneurship, Early Childhood Education, Industrial Engineering, Electronics Engineering, and Information Technology.
Defensor also vowed to expand QCU’s main campus and its satellite campuses so that students would be able to go to school closer to their homes
