PLM marks 50th anniversary

THE Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (PLM) is celebrating its Golden Anniversary on July 17, 2017 and has lined up a week-long series of activities that includes a motorcade around the Intramuros area, a university fair, and evening musical events.

A new building will be blessed and it’s turned over by the city government of Manila to PLM. Mayor Joseph E. Estrada and PLM President Ma. Leonora V. de Jesus will lead the turnover rites.

Groundbreaking rites will be held for another building, the Gender Awareness Center, which will house the classrooms for the Early Child Care and Development (ECCD) program that the university will soon offer.

PLM alumni who are interested to join the celebration can register with the Public Affairs Office by calling (02) 643-2518 or (02) 526-6842 or by emailing ovppa@plm.edu.ph.

Created by virtue of Republic Act No. 4196, which now serves as the University Charter, PLM first opened its doors on July 17, 1967, to 556 freshman scholars, all coming from the top 10% of the graduating class of Manila’s then 29 public high schools.

As provided for under the University Charter, the city government of Manila underwrites the cost of PLM’s undergraduate education to provide the city’s intellectually gifted but financially disadvantaged youth access to highquality college education. This has, over the years, become the Pamantasan’s primary service – the provision of a completely free quality tertiary education to the less privileged but talented high school graduates of Manila.

However, as an expression of its social responsibility and in order to help democratize admission to quality higher education, PLM has also opened its doors to other private and public high school graduates outside of Manila under a highly subsidized scholarship program.

Over the last 50 years of its operation as the first tuition-free university in the Philippines and perhaps in Asia, PLM has carved a niche for itself among the country’s leading schools. It has consistently distinguished itself through the outstanding performance of its students in the various licensure exams given by the government and in the many inter-school competitions sponsored by some of the country’s biggest corporations.

PLM posted a perfect 100% passing rate in the last board exams for physical therapists, doctors, mechanical engineers, and registered electrical engineers. In the November, 2016, bar exams, it also registered a 100% passing rate for first-time takers. And in the June, 2017, Architect Licensure Examination, a PLM graduate took second spot while the university placed fourth in the list of best performing schools with 50 or more examinees.

As a result, PLM was listed sixth in the first Philippine Universities Ranking conducted by the research site finduniveristy. ph, where the schools surveyed were ranked based on their performance in the various licensure exams their graduates participated in. The Pamantasan posted a weighted board exam ranking of 83.9% based on 19 board exams. Moreover, in the annual JobStreet.com survey of the top schools whose graduates are preferred by employers, PLM has consistently been included among the Top 10.