UP studying proposal to refine the criteria for Latin honors
The University of the Philippines is studying a proposal to refine the criteria for Latin honors.
This comes as a response to concerns regarding the surge of graduates receiving Latin honors. For Academic Year 2024-2025 in UP Diliman, 2,369 out of 3,876 graduates (61%) received Latin honors. Among them, 241 graduated summa cum laude, 1,143 magna cum laude, and 985 cum laude.
In a statement sent to PhilSTAR L!fe, the UP Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs (UPOVPAA) attributed the "observed surge" of Latin honor graduates "in part" to the grading adjustments and academic leniences the university had implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"It is important to consider that most students from this year’s graduating batch started their first year in UP during the pandemic in AY 2021-2022," the UPOVPAA said.
The office, however, pointed out that the graduates are products of the K-12 system and are two years older than previous UP students under the old 10-year education cycle.
"[T]hey may be more prepared because of K-12 and are more mature," it said, adding that the "recent implementations of more student support services and efforts may have also played a part in this increase of Latin honor graduates."
"We are nevertheless already seeing a trend of some course grades across the constituent units of the UP System bouncing back from this trend since two academic years ago," it said.
Amid concerns regarding the increase, there had been a proposal to refine the criteria for Latin honors by incorporating percentile-based thresholds, like those used at other global universities.
A technical working group (TWG) was established "to study the potential impact of this approach," the UPOVPAA noted, but the TWG deferred its decision on the proposal, and instead suggested awaiting data from AYs 2025-2026 and 2026-2027.
"Most of the students who will graduate in these academic years commenced their studies in AY 2022-2023 without pandemic-related grading adjustments and are products of the K-12 system," the UPOVAA said. "Their dataset can provide valuable and more accurate insights into the impact of this proposal."
"UP continues to affirm its deep commitment to its mandate of providing Filipinos with quality education," it added, "that embodies not only the highest standards of honor and excellence, but also genuine service to the people."
According to the university website, UP awards Latin honors based on the following weighted average grades: summa cum laude for 1.20 or better, magna cum laude for 1.45 or better, and cum laude for 1.75 or better.
A similar surge in Latin honor recipients can also be seen at the University of Santo Tomas. Its official student publication, The Varsitarian, reported that 3,088 out of 6,891 graduates (45%) received Latin honors. Class of 2025 had 93 summa cum laude, 883 magna cum laude, and 2,112 cum laude graduates.
According to its student handbook, UST awards Latin honors based on the following general weighted average: 1.000 to 1.200 for summa cum laude, 1.201 to 1.450 for magna cum laude, and 1.451 to 1.750 for cum laude.
'Grade hyperinflation'
The high number of Latin honor recipients this year drew mixed reactions, with some wondering about the titles' prestige and if their previously elusive status has supposedly become ubiquitous and easy to achieve.
It also revived old discussions on alleged grade hyperinflation among universities, especially at UP.
In 2022, journalism professor Danilo Arao, who, at the time, was part of UP's University Council that approves the list of graduating students, questioned on X why 1,433 students (147 summa cum laude, 652 magna cum laude, 634 cum laude) earned Latin honors.
In another tweet, he defined grade hyperinflation as an "'A level' increase in scores that don't match [the] quality of academic works."
"This is an issue because an 'old' system of grading may or may not apply to a 'new' system of learning," he said, alluding to the prevailing online classes at the time due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Extent of grade solicitation is also worth studying," he added.
At the time, L!fe reached out to UP's then-Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Ma. Theresa Payongayong, now Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs (Curriculum and Instruction), who dismissed such claims about grade solicitation.
"The University does not allow grade negotiation and solicitation," Payongayong said in an email, while also citing the University Code's Article 375, which states that, "No student of the University shall directly or indirectly ask any person to recommend him/her to a professor for any grade in the class record, examination paper, or final Report of Grades. Any student violating this rule shall lose credit in the subject(s) regarding which such recommendation is made. The fact that a student is thus recommended shall be prima facie evidence that the recommendation is made at the request of the student concerned."
She noted that the 2022 students were from the first batch of K-12 graduates who entered UP, and that's a "factor that might have made this increase in the number of honor graduates possible."
"UP Diliman also gets the country's best students; thus, it is not surprising that many of them would get high grades," she added.
Payongayong, at the time, also warned about the "need to reassess the patterns in grade-giving through the years before any conclusion pertaining to hyperinflation is arrived at."
'Too many laudes?'
In his Aug. 7, 2023 column for The Philippine STAR, Butch Dalisay, who noted he's among "many alumni and casual onlookers," said he "couldn't help but be bothered" that over half of that year's UP graduates earned Latin honors. (It's a total of 2,243 out of 3,359 graduates, with 305 summa cum laude, 1,196 magna cum laude, and 742 cum laude.)
But Dalisay, who taught in UP for nearly 40 years, pointed out that he disagrees with "the harshest of conclusions" that the figures were due to grade hyperinflation, UP turning into a "diploma mill," and UP education being "no longer what it used to be."
Still, he also questioned why, a decade ago, only 15 out of 4,365 graduates received Latin honors.
Making an "educated guess," Dalisay attributed the high Latin honor count to the "enforced laxity in grading during the pandemic."
He highlighted factors like the lockdown, Zoom classes that were affected by "highly variable conditions of connectivity," lack of access to physical libraries and laboratories, little face-to-face social interactions, and the "critical eye of hovering parents and siblings at home."
He also cited UP's "no-fail" policy at the time (except for academic dishonesty cases), the extension of the one-year period for resolving incomplete grades, the professors' inability to drop students for absences or lack of communication, the students' ability to have their grades deferred, the UP's suspension of its scholastic delinquency and retention policies, and the university rule not factoring grades earned during that time's adjustment period.
