A survey of the educational system of the Philippine islands by the Board of educational survey, created under acts 3162 and 3196 of the Philippine Legislature.

612 EDUCATIONAL SURVEY OF THE PHILIPPINES

to make general examination from time to time of the academic and
financial condition of the University, and to make reports to the Philippine Legislature with such recommendations as its members favor.
The administration of a public supported university may, as in
Continental Europe, be made a function of the Government and placed
under the ministry of public instruction or on a corresponding body under
whatever name; or it may, as in the United States, be made a function
of the state and entrusted to a board of regents which is not a part of the
Government. Either system is practicable, but it is doubtful whether a
hybrid will function efficiently. The University of the Philippines has a
hybrid system. It will be noted that the Board of Regents, as originally
organized, was composed of six ex-officio members and five appointed
members, and that of the six ex-officio members one was the Secretary
of the Interior and two others were respectively the Chairmen of the
Senate and the House committees on education. They were a part
of the Government and their real raison d'etre was to maintain Government control of the institution. Associated with them were five
citizens of the state selected for their eminence in various fields of endeavor to represent the state and the body politic on the Board. The
reasons sometimes averred for the presence of the Government representatives on the Board were the necessity of having the interests and the
needs of the University expressed in the Legislature and the necessity
of creating something in the nature of a liaison between the University
and the Government. But it is to be noted that in the last House of
Representatives alone the Speaker and fifteen members were alumni of
the University and that as time passes this number is unquestionably
destined to increase. Hence the needs and the interests of the University
can be expressed and safeguarded in the Legislature by its alumni.
Moreover, the Board of Regents is the proper liaison body between the
University and the Government. Finally, if additional check upon the
University is needed, the committees on education of the two Houses
respectively can at any time request and secure an investigation.
That Government interference is not an academic matter, the facts
of the past few years disclose. In the interval since 1919 the Legislature
has enacted statutes establishing a rigid-salary scale for the instructional
staff of the University, requiring the approval of the presiding officers
of the two Houses of the Legislature and of the Governor-General for the
selection of a president and the employment of every teacher whose
salary exceeds a certain amount; and providing in 1923 that none of
the moneys expended by the University for that year should be used to
increase any salaries either of the instructional or administrative staff.
Government interference in the administration of the University could
hardly go farther. The Act of 1923 had a most demoralizing effect