Student Affairs Essay

Government subsidy for public tertiary institutions has been steadily dwindling over the years; while student tuition in private colleges and universities has been steadily rising. Sixty percent of government subsidy for public colleges and universities is earmarked for faculty salaries, with the bulk of the remainder goes to infrastructure maintenance and the salaries of all non-academic personnel including student affairs practitioners, with little left, if any, for student service programs and activities. Typical student services include: 1) scholarships and financial aid; 2) counseling and guidance; 3) health services; 4) student learning assistance; 5) food and cafeteria; 6) residence halls; 7) assistance to international students; and 8) supervision of student activities, especially social action

The Student Affairs is one sector within the university which can reflect such adaptive strategies. Using a multisite-case study method of seven selected public universities in the Philippines, the study explores the roles of student affairs from the perception of its stakeholders and its tacit roles as emergent from an analysis of the university’s context, these are: a) as a catalyst for sustaining institutional identity; b) as a source for supplemental material resource; c) as a provider for alternative learning from the academics, and, finally; d) as a mediator between the external and institutional environment. These roles reflect the attempts of student affairs in public universities in the Philippines to contribute to the holistic development of the students regardless of the challenges of its milieu. The findings could shed insight for policy makers, educational leaders and political leaders on how best to encourage, sustain and harness these substantive coping strategies (Bernardo,