UP Manila: Diagnosed as Excellent in Health Science Education

UP Manila (University of the Philippines in Manila), located in Padre Faura Ermita, is well-known for its degree-granting course in medicine.

The university is also highly regarded as the leading university for health science courses in the country.

The oldest constituent of the University of the Philippines system, the school’s College of Medicine as the Philippine Medical School was founded in 1905, three years ahead of the founding of the University of the Philippines.

As the center for health science education in the Philippines,UP maintains excellent standards for its academic programs ensuring that all courses are relevant, credible, and applicable. The University also encourages an environment of academic freedom leading to excellence.

The programs offered by the University address the primary health concerns of the Filipino and are carried out in close coordination and joint venture with the government, law and policy makers, health institutions, and other professional health groups and organizations. The University also continuously seeks ways to revolutionize its curriculum through researches, trainings, and practical services to the communities, especially those considered as marginal.

University of the Philippines supervises the Philippine General Hospital (PGH), the largest and most extensive government hospital and national referral center for health in the country. The PGH extends health care services to at least half a million patient year on year nationwide. It is also considered to be the best training arena for hundreds of medical interns, residents, nurses, and allied medical professions undergraduates. Most of the interns and resident doctors at PGH are students or graduates of UP.

UP Manila as a standard

Majority of the programs that University of the Philippines develops are used as standards and models of health care and academic learning in the Philippines. Most of UP Manila’s pioneering curricula are only offered in the campus and exclusive to the University, benefitting deserving students who have passed through a series of stringent qualification examinations. These programs are the Integrated Arts and Medicine Program (popularly known as INTARMED, a seven-year program leading to a degree in Medicine), Master of Rehabilitation Science, Master of Science in Clinical Audiology, Master of Arts in Health Policy Studies, the stepladder curriculum of the School of Health Sciences (unit is based in Leyte) consisting of integrated courses on barangay health work, community health work, midwifery, nursing, and community medicine, and the more recent offerings such as Master of Science in Medical Informatics and Diploma in Bioethics, the latter being a joint program with the College of Social Science and Philosophy (CSSP) of the University of the Philippines in Diliman.

Such is UP Manila’s reputation that for the longest years, its graduates have earned prominence in government, non-government organizations and institutions, private, and other professional associations where they command influence, authority, and advocacy in setting the direction and formulation and implementation of the country’s health care policies and programs.

UP Manila and its mandate in research

University of the Philippines is also committed to its mandate in research and has been faithfully producing technological advances and information that improves the health conditions of the Filipinos. The outputs of these extensive researches have substantially influenced national health care programs. They have been used as credible basis formulating and implementing health care policies.

Some of these researches that have resulted to breakthroughs in Philippine health care are the following: national surveys on blindness, studies on Hepatitis B, diarrhea, common parasitic infections (adopted by the Department of Health), commercialization of five herbal medicinal formulations (lagundi, yerba Buena, tsaang gubat, sambong, and akapulko), textbooks and instructional guides that are used by other schools and universities, and most recently, the evaluation of PHILHEALTH-the national health insurance of the Philippines, the by NIH.

Spelling excellence of UP Manila

The excellent standards of UP Manila are further buttressed by the consistency in all health licensing examinations year on year, earning 100% passing rate for graduates, who also manage to grab the top 10 or top 20 slots for each board examination. UP Manila has also obtained the highest national passing rate against all academic institutions in the Philippines offering health science courses, an achievement that has been recognized by the Philippine Regulation Commission over and over.