8 out of 10 CAC students struggle with securing classes via SAIS - survey says

by Lyndee Buenagua and Dianne Mallare

In a survey, it was revealed that 8 out of 10 College of Arts and Communication (CAC) students in the University of the Philippines Baguio face difficulties in getting pre-requisite subjects in Student Academic Information System (SAIS).

The limited open classes in SAIS, a website used by UP students to enroll, has been a longstanding problem for the students due to the insufficient instructors in the college.

According to an interview with Renee Del Valle, a 3rd Year BA Communication student, she got delayed after failing to enroll in a particular class despite preparing for the enrollment period.

“Ang daming cases na okay naman ang pagpaplano namin ng mga subjects personally, pero yung mga factors outside our control, like yung sa kulang ng professors, ‘yun yung [dahilan kung bakit] hindi namin matuloy ‘yung sarili naming plans para sa aming academic schedule,” Del Valle said.

Nixx Reyes, college representative for the next school year, added that the interface of SAIS is hard to navigate, resulting in several students struggling to pre–enlist and to enroll.

“Ang aking proposal [bilang college representative ay] ay i-junk ang SAIS at magkaroon tayo ng another way of enrolling courses na accessible at maayos talaga,” Reyes said.

Moreover, assurance in filing petitions to open more classes is also not guaranteed, says Jude Labert Laporga, one of the current college representatives.

“May mga pagkakataon na hindi napagbibigyan dahil hindi abot sa 15 students per class na requirement…at walang available na professor na magtuturo,” Laporga said.

CAC Dean Prof. Jimmy Balud Fong said that the lack of open classes affects less than 10% of the estimated 600 CAC students and the faculty members could allow a single or graduating student to enroll in their classes. "Mayroon namang faculty na tatanggap kapag ganoon. Awa na [lang],” Fong said.

The Office of the University Registrar (OUR) announced on May 31 that the pre-registration for the First Semester A.Y. 2023-204 will start on June 8-20. Meanwhile, the enrollment for Midyear classes will start on June 29-30 .

The online and on-ground survey was conducted by first year BA Communication students from May 18 to May 20 to determine the number of students struggling with the limited open classes.

Fifty respondents participated to the said survey.