Board of Regents of The University of The City of Manila - Institution - Academics and Administration

Academics and Administration

As a chartered and autonomous university, PLM is governed by a Board of Regents and administered by a president. The Board of Regents, the highest decision-making body of PLM, has the authority to grant diplomas, certificates and titles to students who have completed their academic programs and validate graduation of students. The six-member Board is composed of the president of the PLM, a representative of the PLM faculty, a distinguished alumnus, a respected educator, one other respected professional, and the superintendent of the Division of City Schools-Manila. Each member serves a six-year tenure of office. The president oversees the implementation of the university policies.

Immediately under the president are the offices of four vice presidents — executive vice president, vice president for Academic Affairs, vice president for Administration, and vice president for Finance and Planning.

The university is organized into 12 undergraduate colleges, two professional schools, seven graduate schools, and an open university and distance learning program, which are all supervised by the executive vice president. These academic units collectively provide 53 single-degree undergraduate and 49 masters, doctoral, and graduate diploma programs.

The Arts and Sciences degree programs at the undergraduate level are conferred through the College of Accountancy & Economics, the College of Architecture & Urban Planning, the College of Engineering & Technology, the College of Human Development, the College of Liberal Arts, the College of Management & Entrepreneurship, the College of Mass Communication, the College of Nursing, the College of Physical Education, Recreation & Sports, the College of Physical Therapy, the College of Science, and the College of Tourism, Hotel & Travel Industry Management. Postgraduate studies are being administered through the open university and distance learning program, the College of Law, the College of Medicine, and the six graduate schools, including the Emeritus College, the Graduate School of Arts, Sciences & Education, the Graduate School of Health Sciences, the Graduate School of Engineering, the Graduate School of Law, the Graduate School of Management, and the President Ramon Magsaysay Graduate School of Public Governance.

PLM is the tenth largest university in Metro Manila with a total student enrollment of 13,711 (as of January 20, 2006). For the undergraduate class of 2006-2007, PLM received 40,000 college applications, and accepted 3% of them. While admittance to the undergraduate colleges are exclusive for Manila residents, non-residents who have graduated either as Salutatorian or Valedictorian are privileged to take the PLM Admission Test and eventually qualify as freshmen. As for the professional (law and medicine) and graduate schools, no specific residency requirements are imposed. Full scholarship is entitled for Manila residents, while minimal fees are charged for non-residents. Other scholarships are available in the university, with funding coming from alumni donations, the government, and the private sector.

PLM's endowment in 2008 was valued at PhP 500 million, excluding budgetary allocation for its chief teaching hospital, the Ospital ng Maynila Medical Center, which was about PhP 250 million. The University spends about four to fives times the national average for education.

PLM uses a semester-based modular system for conducting courses, adopts features of the American credit system, and employs the General Weighted Average (GWA) system and a 1.00 to 5.00 grading scale.

Except from the graduate schools of Engineering, Law and Management, which have trimestral calendar, most of the colleges and schools of PLM consist of two regular semesters of about 15 to 16 weeks each, and semestral breaks of about three to four weeks. At the undergraduate level, the university requires a minimum of 12 units to be considered a full-time student, with the maximum being 20 units.