REPRESENTATIVES of student groups in the University of the East-Caloocan have decried the unexpected disqualification of several students from scholarship programs for the second semester of School Year 2020-2021.

The UE-Caloocan Central Student Council said students have been denied renewal of scholarship because they had failing grades in the previous semesters.

“To be specific, even though their grade point averages for the recent semester are within the specific ranges provided for in candidacies for the university president scholarship, univetrsity scholarship, and college scholarship programs, they have not been deemed qualified for the same upon enrollment due to them having a failing grade in another semester already conducted,” Saida Manap, CSC president, said.

Manap said that scholarships should be renewed on a semestral basis given that students obtained a general weighted average of 1.60 as stated in the student manual and university’s website.

The school’s Admissions Office informed students that a new policy has been adopted and scholars with a history of failing marks were only given consideration in the first semester of SY 2020-2021.

Manap said that students were not informed of the new policy.

“This should have been made transparent to the students,” she said.

Manap urged UE President Ester Garcia to address the scholars’ concerns, saying that “students have put an extraordinary effort in the recent semester in the hopes of achieving a scholarship.”

“If no acceptable clarification is made regarding this issue, the administration will be deemed to have compromised the promise of the university and the supposed policies outlined in the student manual,” she added.

The POST has requested the UE administration for its side of the story, but to no avail as of posting time.