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Scholarships & student aid

Who qualifies, what it costs, and what the auditors found.

National government scholarships and student financial assistance: eligibility rules, benefits, agency budgets, DOST-SEI scholarship numbers and Commission on Audit observations — at program level, never individual students.

No scholar is named on this page. Agencies publish qualifiers’ names to notify them, not so they can be profiled. A published name says nothing about a family’s income, and most scholars are young private individuals.

Whether a grant went to someone ineligible can only be shown by the agencies’ eligibility records and by COA audits — so that is what is tracked here, together with the requests that would make more of it public.

Programs

Who can get each grant

Eligibility and benefits as published by the implementing agency.

Income testDOST Science Education Institute

DOST-SEI RA 7687 Undergraduate Scholarship

RA 7687 (Science and Technology Scholarship Act of 1994)
College (priority science, technology, engineering and math courses)
Eligibility
  • Graduating Grade 12 student (or graduate not yet enrolled in college)
  • Passes the DOST-SEI qualifying examination
  • From an economically disadvantaged family, under DOST-SEI's socio-economic criteria
  • No post-secondary (college or vocational) units earned
Benefits
  • Monthly stipend (₱8,000 as reported for 2026)
  • Tuition, book, clothing, transportation, thesis and graduation allowances
  • Group health and accident insurance
  • Return service: work in the Philippines for as many years as the scholarship was enjoyed

The law also asks DOST-SEI to spread scholars geographically (reported as at least two per municipality). Whether that happens can only be checked with scholar counts by municipality, which are not published.

Poverty list (Listahanan)CHED – UniFAST

Tertiary Education Subsidy (TES)

RA 10931 (Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act)
College (SUCs, CHED-recognized LUCs and private HEIs)
Eligibility
  • Filipino citizen
  • Priority: students from the poorest households in DSWD's Listahanan 3.0
  • Enrolled in a first undergraduate degree
Benefits
  • Grant-in-aid for the full or partial cost of tertiary education
Income testCHED – UniFAST (a subsidy under TES)

Tulong Dunong Program (TDP)

RA 10931
College (SUCs, LUCs and private HEIs)
Eligibility
  • Filipino citizen
  • Combined household gross income of parents/guardians not over ₱400,000
  • Enrolled in a first undergraduate degree program
  • Not a beneficiary of TES, CHED Scholarship Programs or other national government student aid
Benefits
  • ₱7,500 per regular semester, subject to prioritization and available funds

Proof of income for new applicants is a Certificate of Indigency signed by the punong barangay where the applicant lives.

No income testCHED – UniFAST

Free Higher Education (FHE)

RA 10931, Section 4
College (state and CHED-recognized local universities and colleges)
Eligibility
  • Filipino citizen
  • Meets the school's admission and retention policies
  • No previous undergraduate degree
  • Not overstaying (program length + 1 year grace)
Benefits
  • Free tuition and 13 other school fees (admission, athletic, computer, cultural, development, entrance, guidance, handbook, laboratory, library, medical/dental, registration, school ID)

Free tuition is a right of every eligible enrollee, not a scholarship awarded by income — so “ineligible by income” does not apply to FHE.

Not yet covered: CHED Scholarship Programs (CSP) details, TESDA training scholarships (TWSP, STEP, PESFA) eligibility and benefits, and LGU scholarships. They will be added from the agencies’ own guidelines.

Funding

Agency budgets (GAA)

Whole-agency appropriations, PHP billions. These include programs other than scholarships — they are the ceiling, not the scholarship amount.

Agency2020202120222023202420252026
DOST Science Education Institute
Mostly scholarships, plus science education programs.
₱4.74B₱6.97B₱6.96B₱7.21B₱7.33B₱7.49B₱7.60B
Commission on Higher Education (incl. UniFAST)
Includes TES, Tulong Dunong, CHED scholarships and other programs. Free tuition in state universities is partly budgeted under the universities themselves.
₱47.91B₱51.84B₱32.75B₱31.73B₱38.00B₱34.88B₱48.37B
TESDA
Includes training-for-work scholarships and all other TESDA programs. Moved between departments in the GAA in 2023; both lines are added here.
₱13.15B₱14.66B₱14.02B₱16.25B₱21.48B₱20.98B₱26.34B

Program-level lines (for example the TES and Tulong Dunong appropriations) are in the GAA itself and will replace these totals once extracted.

DOST-SEI undergraduate scholarships

Examinees and qualifiers by year

YearExamineesQualifiersRateRA 7687 / MeritSource
201973,7129,85213.4%—The Summit Express — historical results table
2020102,5269,7889.5%5,917 / 3,871Inquirer (22 Jul 2021)
2022—10,487——The Summit Express
202379,5859,77612.3%—PRC Board News
202489,51010,75612.0%—The Summit Express
202584,51810,90712.9%—The Summit Express
202697,6178,5008.7%5,100 / 3,400The Summit Express — “Only 8,500 pass”

2026: DOST-SEI said its ₱7.6-billion budget allows up to 8,500 new scholars (5,100 RA 7687, 3,400 Merit). The published list has 8,108 names; 392 potential qualifiers had documents pending. The current scholar population was reported as 48,520 undergraduate, 4,414 master’s, 1,438 doctoral and 329 foreign graduate scholars. 2021 figures not yet sourced. Figures are DOST-SEI announcements as reported by the outlets linked; the 2026 qualifier list itself contains names only (no school, city or region), so it cannot be broken down by place.

Commission on Audit

What the auditors found

Observations in COA annual audit reports on scholarship funds. An audit observation is not a finding of a crime; agencies respond and many items are later settled.

  1. 2024 auditCHEDTertiary Education Subsidy
    • COA flagged about ₱20 billion in TES grants as unliquidated or delayed.

    Agency response: CHED ordered an internal review and pledged cooperation (January 2026). In March 2026 it said the audit balances cover findings accumulated over several years, and that 40.8% had been settled as of 19 March 2026.

  2. 2023 auditCHEDCHED Scholarship Programs, Tulong Dunong, TES
    • Overpayments or double payments to beneficiaries of the CHED Scholarship Programs, reported at ₱1.5 billion in total.
    • 13 students paid ₱232,500 under the CHED Scholarship Programs while also being Tulong Dunong/TES grantees.
    • ₱9.1 million in TES funds for the first semester of AY 2020–2021 still unclaimed at the end of 2023.
  3. 2023 auditDOST-SEIASTHRDP graduate scholarships and fund transfers
    • Graduate scholars’ financial assistance delayed by one to twelve months.
    • ₱1.748 billion in funds transferred for scholars not yet reported as spent (including ₱1.211 billion unliquidated since 2021).
    • Scholars complained of no updates on their status and unanswered emails.

    Agency response: SEI said it releases funds to universities only after receiving status and financial reports, and committed to centralize fund distribution and keep scholars informed.

  4. 2022 auditCHEDTertiary Education Subsidy
    • Delayed release of ₱3.4 billion in TES benefits.
    • 51 TES grantees (2019–2021 masterlists, CHED Regional Offices II and IV-A) were also Tulong Dunong or CHED scholarship beneficiaries — double grants reported at ₱546,000.
    • ₱16.8 billion in unliquidated funds.
  5. 2020 auditDOST-SEIS&T scholarships
    • About ₱1.7 billion in unused scholarship funds not remitted to the Treasury, including grants meant for scholars who were ineligible or did not qualify.
    • ₱5.38 billion in unliquidated fund transfers to implementing agencies, including state universities and colleges.

    Agency response: DOST-SEI said the funds would be returned and that it would study releasing assistance directly to scholars.

  6. 2019 auditCHEDTES and Tulong Dunong
    • Procedural deficiencies and double entries of TES beneficiaries.
    • COA asked CHED to review the Listahanan masterlist and require grantees whose names are not on it to submit supporting documents.
    • 15,280 continuing grantees and 10,956 Tulong Dunong grantees still unpaid at the end of 2019.
    • ₱658.29 million in fund transfers unliquidated.
  7. 2017 auditTESDATraining for Work Scholarship Program (TWSP)
    • Irregularities among 580 scholars in TESDA-Manila programs under the ₱2.415-billion TWSP.
    • At one training provider, listed trainees could not be verified as having trained; some interviewed students said they were told to sign attendance sheets, vouchers and IDs.
    • At another, ₱9.3 million for 310 scholars had glaring documentary deficiencies; the school refunded the amount.

    Agency response: TESDA said it had closed 175 training centers and 6,273 programs after a national technical audit, and set up a National Inspectorate for Scholarship Programs.

  8. 2016 auditCHEDStudent Financial Assistance Programs (StuFAPs)
    • About ₱435 million in scholarship deficiencies.
    • Benefits paid twice in one semester to the same students.
    • ₱1.52 million paid to scholars not enrolled in CHED’s priority courses, and ₱133,500 to scholars with failing grades.
    • ₱120.156 million unliquidated in the Davao and SOCCSKSARGEN regions; ₱93.61 million in payments lacking documents.

“Reported” means the observation is taken from a news report of the COA annual audit report; the original reports (coa.gov.ph) are being obtained to replace these links.

Gaps

What isn’t public yet — and the request that would answer it

Aggregate counts are enough to check whether money reaches the intended students. None of these requests asks for personal data.

How many scholars each city and municipality has

“Number of active DOST-SEI undergraduate scholars per city/municipality of permanent residence, by program (RA 7687, Merit) and year, 2020–2026”

Ask: DOST-SEI (eFOI)
Whether RA 7687 scholars meet the income test

“Distribution of RA 7687 scholars by declared family income bracket at application, and number of awards revoked for misdeclared income, per year”

Ask: DOST-SEI (eFOI)
Where TES and Tulong Dunong money goes

“Number of TES and TDP grantees and amounts paid per region, province and higher education institution, per academic year, 2018–2026”

Ask: UniFAST / CHED (eFOI)
How many TES grantees were outside the Listahanan

“Number of TES grantees paid who were not in the DSWD Listahanan masterlist, the basis for their inclusion, and the number later delisted, per academic year”

Ask: UniFAST / CHED (eFOI)
Double grants and delistings

“Number of students found receiving more than one national government grant, amounts recovered, and number delisted with reasons (aggregate counts only)”

Ask: UniFAST, CHED, DOST-SEI (eFOI)
TESDA training scholarships by place

“Number of TWSP/STEP/PESFA scholars and amounts per province and training institution per year, and results of National Inspectorate validations”

Ask: TESDA (eFOI)
The full audit findings

“Annual Audit Reports of CHED, UniFAST, DOST-SEI and TESDA (2016–2025), including Notices of Suspension/Disallowance on scholarship funds and their status”

Ask: Commission on Audit (coa.gov.ph)
Local government scholarships

“List of LGU scholarship programs, appropriations, number of grantees and selection criteria (aggregate), from each LGU’s Full Disclosure Policy postings”

Ask: LGUs / DILG FDP portal

Requests can be filed on the national eFOI portal (foi.gov.ph). Data received will be published here with the request reference. Methodology →