Presidents of 110 state universities and colleges (SUCs) signed recently, with the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd), the Covenant on Philippine Public Higher Education Reform.

CHED Chair Patricia B. Licuanan highlights that the covenant will help curb unemployment of graduates. The covenant commits the SUCs to the pursuit and implementation of the initiatives proposed in the Roadmap of Public Higher Education Reform 2011-2016. The major roadmap is to raise the level of educational outcomes and increase the social relevance of the SUCs’ developmental functions and to expand access to quality higher education among lower income and disadvantaged groups.

The roadmap encapsulates President Aquino's strategies for higher education reform. It focuses on nine key areas, including the number, distribution and growth of public higher education institutions, their program offerings and their use of resources.

The covenant also provides additional funds are good infrastructure and equipment, research, executive development and poverty alleviation scholarships, writes Stephen Norries Padilla for Philippine Daily Inquirer.