Showing the desire of the Philippine Government to improve the standards of legal education in the country, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) has announced that it would close down seven law schools in the country because not one of their graduates had passed the bar exams in the last 10 years, according to CHED chairman Emmanuel Angeles..
Angeles said that they would start with the law programs of the East Central Colleges, Eastern Samar State University, Polytechnic College of La Union, Samar College, Ramon Magsaysay Technological University, Southern Bicol College, and Abra Valley College.
The Virgen De Los Remedios College, International Harvardian University , Manuel A. Roxas Educational Institution, and the Zamboanga A.E. College had earlier voluntarily phased-out their law programs after a review of their bar exam records.
He added that universities and colleges that had only “less than five percent” of their graduates passing the bar from 1999 to 2009 would also be warned to improve their performance.
While cracking down on “non-performing” law schools, the CHED chairman also released a list of the country‘s “Top 20 law schools in terms of their percentile passing rate.”
These schools were Ateneo de Manila University, San Beda College, University of the Philippines, Far Eastern University-DLSU (Juris Doctor-MBA), Ateneo de Davao University, University of San Carlos, University of Santo Tomas, University of Cebu, University of Perpetual Help-Rizal, Arellano University, Xavier University, Far Eastern University, Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, University of San Agustin, University of Batangas, Palawan State University, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Saint Louis University, Lyceum of the Philippines, and the San Sebastian College-Recolectos de Manila.
See:
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20090923-226561/7-law-schools-to-be-closed----CHED
