SENATOR Alan Peter Cayetano on Friday strongly urged the University of the Philippines to administer its College Admission Test for the next academic year to provide a more equitable system in evaluating students.

The school has not administered the UPCAT for three years in a row because of the pandemic. Instead, the university admitted freshmen based on their academic performance in senior high school.

In his Senate Resolution 157, Cayetano said as the country’s national university and recipient of a lion’s share of budget for SUCs, UP has to maintain its high standards of academic excellence by, among others, admitting only the best and the most deserving high school graduates through a more holistic admission process.

“UP needs to consider UPCAT next year in order to continue to attract and admit the best of the best,” he added.

He said that unlike UPCAT which is standardized among all aspirants, several factors affect high school grades, including different grading systems in different types of high school and teachers’ and schools’ standards, among others.

“Going to UP is a dream of many Filipinos. It is not the student-applicant’s fault that the high schools they attended do not have the habit of giving relatively higher grades. Without UPCAT, we are killing the dreams of these highly qualified students without giving them a chance,” Cayetano said in the resolution.