Graduate study in the Philippines is not free, and the schemes that pay for it are narrower than most applicants assume. Almost every one of them attaches to something specific — a field, an employer, a consortium of universities, or a service obligation measured in years.
Here is what is actually running, who each programme is for, and what it costs you beyond tuition.
First, the thing that does not cover you
Republic Act No. 10931, the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act, is not a graduate scholarship. Section 4 grants free tuition and other school fees at state and local universities to students enrolled "in pursuance of a bachelor's degree, certificate degree, o[r] any comparable undergraduate degree." Master's and doctoral study sits outside that grant.
The one part of RA 10931 that does reach graduate students is Section 8, the student loan programme for tertiary education. It provides that those who used a loan as undergraduates "may still avail of another cycle of student loan for their pursuit of graduate studies, including medicine and law after they have fully paid the previously availed loan," and that those who did not use it as undergraduates "may avail of it to pursue graduate studies including medicine and law." The programme is administered by the UniFAST Board — see our UniFAST guide for how that machinery works.
So: loans, not free tuition. Everything below is separate.
DOST-SEI: the science and technology route
The Science Education Institute of the Department of Science and Technology is the largest single funder of Philippine graduate study in science and engineering. It runs several distinct programmes, and applicants routinely confuse them.
ASTHRDP
The Accelerated Science and Technology Human Resource Development Program funds full-time MS and PhD study in DOST priority areas at consortium universities. Published programme conditions cover tuition fee reimbursement, a monthly stipend and book allowance, and a thesis or dissertation allowance, with additional research and dissemination grants available.
Two conditions matter more than the money.
First, the scholar "must not be employed or practicing his/her profession while on scholarship." This is a full-time award and it is enforced as one.
Second, the scholar must "render service obligation in the Philippines after he/she finishes the MS/PhD degree, i.e. one year service for every year of scholarship." Non-completion or failure to serve triggers refund provisions.
Applications run per academic term through the consortium's online portal, with deadlines announced by DOST-SEI and the member universities each cycle. Do not plan around a date you saw on a blog — check the host university's current call.
ERDT
The Engineering Research and Development for Technology programme is the engineering-specific counterpart, aimed at "contributing to the creation of a critical mass of research scientists and engineers who possess master's and doctoral degree[s]." It is delivered through an eight-member consortium — Ateneo de Manila University, Central Luzon State University, De La Salle University, Mapua, MSU-Iligan Institute of Technology, UP Diliman, UP Los Baños and the University of San Carlos.
Because each member university handles its own intake, the same national programme can carry different closing dates depending on where you apply. Check the engineering graduate office of the specific campus.
CBPSME
The Capacity Building Program in Science and Mathematics Education funds master's and doctoral study in science and mathematics education. This is the one aimed at teachers rather than at researchers, and it is delivered through a consortium of teacher education institutions and universities.
University pages publishing the package list, for full-time master's scholars, a ₱25,000 monthly stipend plus book and transportation allowances and a ₱50,000 thesis allowance; for full-time doctoral scholars, a ₱33,000 monthly stipend plus allowances and a ₱100,000 dissertation allowance. Part-time slots are also offered at some institutions. Figures are set by DOST-SEI per programme cycle, so treat these as indicative and confirm with the host university.
Our DOST scholarship guide covers the agency's programmes more broadly, and the DOST foreign graduate scholarship covers the overseas track.
CHED SIKAP: for people who already work in a university
SIKAP — Scholarships for Staff and Instructors' Knowledge Advancement Program — is CHED's graduate scholarship for higher education personnel. It is not open to the general public.
CHED's SIKAP portal describes it as providing "scholarship opportunities for teaching and non-teaching personnel of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to pursue advanced graduate studies," and lists three variants: SIKAP for regular and plantilla personnel, SIKAP-N for non-regular personnel, and SIKAP-L for members of the Philippine Bar pursuing legal education.
Core eligibility as published: a Filipino citizen, teaching or non-teaching personnel employed full-time in a CHED-recognised HEI, admitted and enrolling in a graduate degree programme within the term of application, and physically and mentally fit to complete the programme. Applicants with existing government-funded grants are excluded.
The published benefits:
| Full-time master's | Full-time doctorate | |
|---|---|---|
| Tuition and fees | Actual | Actual |
| Monthly stipend | ₱41,000 | ₱54,000 |
| Research allowance | ₱150,000 | ₱250,000 |
Part-time scholars receive term subsidies rather than a monthly stipend. CHED's own pages point to the governing memorandum orders — CMO No. 9, series of 2025 for the updated guidelines, with CMO No. 16, s. 2021 covering full-time study and CMO No. 28, s. 2021 covering part-time study — and applications are filed through sikap.ched.gov.ph in batches within each fiscal year's call.
Because the guidelines are reissued, the safe move is to read the current CMO rather than a summary. Our CHED SIKAP guide goes into the programme in more depth.
DAP: public management, in batches
The Development Academy of the Philippines runs the Graduate School of Public and Development Management, whose flagship degree is the Master in Public Management.
DAP has offered partial funding on specific MPM batches. Its invitation for the sixth batch of the programme advertised "a 50% scholarship grant is available for 20 qualified government employees." That is a batch-specific offer, not a standing entitlement, and it is partial rather than full.
Worth separating from the degree: DAP's Public Management Development Program refers to its participants as scholars and runs Senior Executives, Middle Managers, Local Government Executives and Managers, and Wise Leadership classes, with agency nomination, screening, examinations and interviews. It is a leadership development programme, and its published materials do not present it as leading to a graduate degree. If your goal is the credential, the MPM is the thing to apply for; if your goal is the training, PMDP is a different product.
Institutional grants: the underrated tier
National programmes are heavily oversubscribed. University-level funding is not, largely because it is advertised badly.
The forms it usually takes:
- Graduate assistantships and teaching fellowships. You teach or assist in exchange for tuition remission and a stipend. Common at large universities with undergraduate teaching loads to cover.
- Research assistantships on funded projects. A faculty member with a grant needs a graduate student. These are almost never posted publicly; you find them by asking the department.
- Faculty and staff development slots. If your employer is an HEI, it likely has an internal development programme separate from SIKAP.
- Employee tuition discounts. Universities frequently discount graduate tuition for their own staff, including non-teaching staff.
- Consortium and departmental grants tied to a specific funded programme or research centre.
CHED's own graduate policy quietly reinforces why these exist. Its rules on graduate faculty require doctoral degrees with published scholarly work for thesis advising, which gives universities a direct institutional interest in funding their own staff through master's and doctoral study.
Ask three people: the graduate school registrar, the department chair, and the faculty member whose research you want to join. The scholarships office is often the last to know.
What each one really costs you
Every government scholarship here trades money for constraint. Before you sign anything, get clear answers on four points.
- Service obligation. How many years, in what capacity, and where. ASTHRDP's one-year-per-year-of-scholarship rule is the standard shape.
- Employment restriction. Full-time awards generally forbid working. If you cannot afford to stop earning, a full-time scholarship is not a scholarship you can take. Working full-time while in graduate school covers the part-time alternatives.
- Completion deadline. Awards are time-boxed. A thesis that runs long can push you past the funded period, and the refund clause does not care why.
- Refund exposure. Understand what you owe, and on what terms, if you withdraw or fail to serve.
How to sequence an application
Scholarship applications almost always require proof that you are already admitted, or admissible, to the graduate programme. That means the university application comes first, or at least in parallel.
A workable order:
- Pick the programme and confirm it is at a participating consortium or CHED-recognised institution for the scholarship you want.
- Apply for admission. Assemble transcripts, recommendation letters and any concept paper — see graduate school admission requirements.
- Watch the funder's current call. DOST-SEI, CHED and DAP all publish per-cycle announcements with their own deadlines.
- File the scholarship application with the admission letter attached.
- Read the deed of undertaking properly before signing.
The honest bottom line
If you are in science, technology, engineering or maths, DOST-SEI is your first stop and the service obligation is the real price. If you already work at a university, SIKAP is the most generous package on this list and you should check whether your institution qualifies. If you are in government and want a public management degree, watch DAP's batch announcements. Everyone else should work the institutional tier hard, because that is where the unclaimed money is.
Every figure in this post comes from the funder's or a host university's own published page, and every one of them can change at the next cycle. Verify before you plan around it.
Sources
- Republic Act No. 10931, Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act (LawPhil Project, Arellano Law Foundation): https://lawphil.net/statutes/repacts/ra2017/ra_10931_2017.html
- CHED SIKAP official portal — programme description, eligibility and benefits: https://sikap.ched.gov.ph/
- Commission on Higher Education — Scholarships for Instructors' Knowledge Advancement Program (SIKAP) page: https://legacy.ched.gov.ph/sikap/
- University of the Philippines Diliman, College of Science — DOST-ASTHRDP scholarship page: https://science.upd.edu.ph/dost-asthrdp/
- University of the Philippines Diliman, College of Education — Scholarships for Math and Science Graduate Students (DOST CBPSME package): https://educ.upd.edu.ph/scholarships-for-math-and-science-graduate-students/
- UP Open University, Faculty of Education — Call for DOST-SEI CBPSME scholarship applications: https://fed.upou.edu.ph/call-for-scholarship-applications-for-first-semester-ay2025-2026-dost-sei-cbpsme/
- Development Academy of the Philippines — Invitation to apply for the sixth batch of the Master in Public Management program: https://dap.edu.ph/invitation-to-apply-for-the-sixth-batch-of-the-master-in-public-management-program/
- Development Academy of the Philippines — Public Management Development Program: https://pmdp.dap.edu.ph/
- MSU-Iligan Institute of Technology, Microelectronics Laboratory — DOST ERDT Scholarship (consortium membership): https://microlab.msuiit.edu.ph/learning-hub/erdt-scholarship
- CHED Memorandum Order No. 15, series of 2019, Policies, Standards, and Guidelines for Graduate Programs: https://legacy.ched.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/CMO-No.-15-Series-of-2019-%E2%80%93-Policies-Standards-and-Guidelines-for-Graduate-Programs-Updated.pdf
