Qualifiers from Indigenous Peoples (IP) communities for the University of the Philippines College Admission Test (UPCAT) increased by 16 percent from last year, comprising 439 qualifiers, or 2.4 percent of the total.
In the recently released UPCAT results for Academic Year 2026-2027, out of 147,437 applicants, 18,350 have qualified for admission.
UPCAT 2026, administered in August 2025 in 117 testing centers nationwide, posted a higher number of applicants and qualifiers than UPCAT 2025, where there were 17,996 successful examinees out of 135,236 applicants.
For the 439 IP qualifiers, the Cordillera Administrative Region had 78 qualifiers, while the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao had 59, Northern Mindanao had 49, Cagayan Valley had 47, National Capital Region (NCR) had 39, SOCKSARGEN had 35, Zamboanga Peninsula had 31, Davao Region had 30, MIMAROPA had 12, CARAGA and Central Luzon had 11 each, Calabarzon had 10, Ilocos region had 9, Western Visayas had 7, Central Visayas and Middle East had 3 each, Negros island had 1.
UP President Angelo Jimenez has deep roots in Mindanao and was named a tribal datu by city elders in Butuan, receiving the title Datu Mankalagan (‘Great Spirit’). He is a Manobo and a Christian lowlander at the same time.
Every iskolar ng bayan will have to hurdle first the UPCAT, which has earned a nationwide reputation as the most competitive college entrance exam in the country. The UPCAT consists of four subtests: Language Proficiency (in English and Filipino), Reading Comprehension (in English and Filipino), Science, and Mathematics. Standardized UPCAT scores are combined with the composite of final grades in Grades 8 to 11 to determine the admission score.
Selection for admission to a campus is based on the applicant’s rank, campus quota and/or cut-off grade.
The successful applicants for a given campus are ranked according to grade predictors and quotas of their chosen degree programs. Some degree programs are more competitive due to high demand. If an applicant is not successful at their first-choice campus, the application will be considered next in order of priority among the remaining campus choices.
The UPCAT differs from the other entrance tests because it deducts 0.25 (or one-fourth) of a point for each incorrect answer. In effect, applicants are slightly penalized for answering questions incorrectly. But one does not receive a deduction if an item is left blank. So guessing the correct answer doesn’t always help.
The number of students who took the exams in 2015 and 2016 dropped due to the implementation of the K-12 program, which added two years in basic education.
For the past 10 years, the number of qualifiers has been increasing:1,558 (26.51 percent) in 2016; 1,591 (17.50 percent) in 2017; 12,900 (12.50 percent) in 2018; 11,821 (13.00 percent) in 2019; 12,802 (13.80 percent) in 2020; 16,859 (16.15 percent) in 2024; 17,996 (13.00 percent) in 2025; and 18,350 (12.45percent) in 2026.
UPCAT was not administered for two academic years (2021-2023) due to Covid-19.
NCR has the highest number of qualifiers (29.68 percent), followed by Calabarzon (18.77 percent), Central Luzon (11.24 percent), Central Visayas (5.28 percent), Western Visayas (4.68 percent), Eastern Visayas (4.64 percent), Bicol (3.53 percent), Davao (3.15 percent), Ilocos (2.87 percent), SOCSARGEN (2.69 percent), Northern Mindanao ( 2.54 percent), Negros (2.14 percent), Cagayan (1.98 percent), Zamboanga Peninsula (1.54 percent), and Caraga (1.44 percent). The percentage of qualifiers from public schools also climbed up to 57.1 percent from the previous 55 percent-continuing a trend of more public-school qualifiers in the UPCAT since 2023.
Sixty percent are female (10,920) while 40 percent are male (7,430).
The Diliman campus was my solace for a decade as a student at the UP School of Economics from 1987 to 1991 and later at the UP College of Law from 1992 to 1998.
The number of first-generation college students who successfully passed UPCAT reached 2,323, almost the same number last year. In 1987, I was among those first generation.
To implement the policy of democratization to make the UP studentry more representative of the nation’s population, socio-economic and geographic considerations are now factored in the selection of campus qualifiers.
One of the lines from the 2014 film ‘That Thing Called Tadhana,’ which starred Angelica Panganiban and JM de Guzman best describe my stay in UP.
‘Nung high school, sobrang galing ko. Lahat ng competitions na sinalihan ko, panalo ako. Tangina! Nu’ng pagdating ko ng UP, ang gagaling ng mga kaklase ko! May mga Malang, may Abueva. Akala ko magaling na ‘ko e. Marunong lang pala,’ de Guzman said.
UP was founded on June 18, 1908, or 117 years ago, through Act No. 1870 of the Philippine Assembly ‘to fill the need to meet the increasing demands for instruction in the higher levels of learning and provide professional studies in medicine, law, engineering or applied sciences.’
To the new Iskolars ng Bayan, the university will be your home during your adolescent lives when you pursue both academic excellence and progressive thinking.