CHED's distribution of higher education institutions for AY 2024-25 counts 113 state university and college main campuses and 442 SUC satellite campuses across the country. Against 1,619 private institutions and 154 local universities and colleges, SUCs are a small share of the institution count but they carry the public higher education system.
This post lists them region by region, explains what legally separates an SUC from a local college or a private university, and sets out what free tuition does and does not cover.
What an SUC Actually Is
Three things define a state university or college in the Philippines, and all three are legal rather than reputational.
It is created by Congress. Each SUC has its own charter — a republic act establishing it, defining its mandate and, in many cases, later converting it from a college to a university. This is why the list changes: a new act creates a new SUC or upgrades an existing one.
It is funded through the national budget. Every SUC appears as a line item in the General Appropriations Act, with its own staffing summary showing authorised positions and salary provision. That is the most reliable public enumeration of which institutions currently exist as SUCs.
It is governed under RA 8292. The Higher Education Modernization Act of 1997 imposes a uniform governance structure. A university has a Board of Regents; a college has a Board of Trustees. The board is chaired by the CHED Chairman, with the institution's president as vice chair, and includes the chairs of the congressional committees on education, the regional directors of NEDA, DOST and the Department of Agriculture, and representatives of the faculty association, student council and alumni association, plus two prominent citizens appointed through a search committee. The president is full-time, appointed by the board through a search committee, serves four years and is eligible for one reappointment.
That governance structure is why an SUC president answers to a board with the national regulator sitting at its head, and why SUC policy tends to move in step across the sector.
SUC, LUC, OGS: The Three Public Categories
CHED distinguishes three kinds of public institution, and conflating them is the most common error in Philippine school lists.
| Type | Created by | Funded by | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| SUC | An act of Congress | General Appropriations Act | Polytechnic University of the Philippines |
| LUC | A local government ordinance | The city or provincial government | Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila |
| OGS | Other government schools, under a national agency other than CHED | Their parent agency | Specialised training institutions |
Local universities and colleges are established by local government units by ordinance under RA 7160, the Local Government Code of 1991, which empowers LGUs to open and operate colleges and universities. CHED exercises supervision over them — monitoring, inspection, evaluation and technical assistance through its regional offices — and their governing boards include the local chief executive as chair and a CHED representative. But they are LGU institutions, and their residency requirements and fee structures are set locally. If you are in Metro Manila, our guide to free city universities in Metro Manila covers the LUC route in detail.
CHED counted 154 LUCs and 6 other government schools nationally for AY 2024-25, against 113 SUC main campuses.
The Full List, Region by Region
The enumeration below is taken from the state universities and colleges section of the 2025 national budget staffing summary published by the Department of Budget and Management, which lists each SUC as a distinct budget entry by region.
Two notes on reading it. The University of Science and Technology of Southern Philippines appears as two entries because its Cagayan de Oro and Claveria campuses carry separate budget lines; it is one institution. The Philippine Energy Research and Policy Institute also appears in the SUC section of the budget but is a research institute rather than a degree-granting SUC, so it is not listed here.
National Capital Region
Eulogio "Amang" Rodriguez Institute of Science and Technology · Marikina Polytechnic College · Philippine Normal University · Philippine State College of Aeronautics · Polytechnic University of the Philippines · Rizal Technological University · Technological University of the Philippines · University of the Philippines System
Region I — Ilocos
Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University · Ilocos Sur Polytechnic State College · Mariano Marcos State University · North Luzon Philippines State College · Pangasinan State University · University of Northern Philippines
Cordillera Administrative Region
Abra State Institute of Sciences and Technology · Apayao State College · Benguet State University · Ifugao State University · Kalinga State University · Mountain Province State Polytechnic College
Region II — Cagayan Valley
Batanes State College · Cagayan State University · Isabela State University · Nueva Vizcaya State University · Quirino State University
Region III — Central Luzon
Aurora State College of Technology · Bataan Peninsula State University · Bulacan Agricultural State College · Bulacan State University · Central Luzon State University · Don Honorio Ventura State University · Nueva Ecija University of Science and Technology · Pampanga State Agricultural University · Philippine Merchant Marine Academy · President Ramon Magsaysay State University · Tarlac Agricultural University · Tarlac State University
Region IV-A — CALABARZON
Batangas State University · Cavite State University · Laguna State Polytechnic University · Southern Luzon State University · University of Rizal System
Region IV-B — MIMAROPA
Marinduque State College · Mindoro State University · Occidental Mindoro State College · Palawan State University · Romblon State University · Western Philippines University
Region V — Bicol
Bicol State College of Applied Sciences and Technology · Bicol University · Camarines Norte State College · Camarines Sur Polytechnic Colleges · Catanduanes State University · Central Bicol State University of Agriculture · Dr. Emilio B. Espinosa Sr. Memorial State College of Agriculture and Technology · Partido State University · Sorsogon State University
Region VI — Western Visayas
Aklan State University · Capiz State University · Carlos Hilado Memorial State University · Central Philippines State University · Guimaras State University · Iloilo Science and Technology University · Iloilo State University of Fisheries Science and Technology · Northern Iloilo State University · State University of Northern Negros · University of Antique
Region VII — Central Visayas
Bohol Island State University · Cebu Normal University · Cebu Technological University · Negros Oriental State University · Siquijor State College
Region VIII — Eastern Visayas
Biliran Province State University · Eastern Samar State University · Eastern Visayas State University · Leyte Normal University · Northwest Samar State University · Palompon Institute of Technology · Samar State University · Southern Leyte State University · University of Eastern Philippines · Visayas State University
Region IX — Zamboanga Peninsula
Basilan State College · J.H. Cerilles State College · Jose Rizal Memorial State University · Western Mindanao State University · Zamboanga Peninsula Polytechnic State University · Zamboanga State College of Marine Sciences and Technology
Region X — Northern Mindanao
Bukidnon State University · Camiguin Polytechnic State College · Central Mindanao University · MSU-Iligan Institute of Technology · Northern Bukidnon State College · Northwestern Mindanao State College of Science and Technology · University of Science and Technology of Southern Philippines
Region XI — Davao
Davao de Oro State College · Davao del Norte State College · Davao del Sur State College · Davao Oriental State University · Southern Philippines Agri-Business and Marine and Aquatic School of Technology · University of Southeastern Philippines
Region XII — SOCCSKSARGEN
Cotabato Foundation College of Science and Technology · South Cotabato State College · Sultan Kudarat State University
Region XIII — Caraga
Agusan del Sur State College of Agriculture and Technology · Caraga State University · North Eastern Mindanao State University · Surigao del Norte State University
Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao
Adiong Memorial State College · Cotabato State University · Mindanao State University · MSU-Tawi-Tawi College of Technology and Oceanography · Sulu State College · Tawi-Tawi Regional Agricultural College
Where the SUCs Are, and Where They Are Not
CHED's regional distribution for AY 2024-25 shows how unevenly public higher education is spread once satellites are counted.
| Region | SUC main | SUC satellite | All HEIs |
|---|---|---|---|
| National Capital Region | 8 | 7 | 318 |
| CALABARZON | 5 | 58 | 365 |
| Central Luzon | 12 | 45 | 250 |
| Bicol Region | 9 | 26 | 178 |
| Eastern Visayas | 10 | 29 | 89 |
| MIMAROPA | 6 | 44 | 91 |
| BARMM | 5 | 14 | 19 |
The pattern is consistent: regions with the fewest private institutions lean hardest on SUC satellite campuses. Eastern Visayas has 89 HEIs in total, of which 39 are SUC campuses. NCR has 318, of which 15 are. If you are outside a major metro, the SUC network is likely to be your nearest and cheapest option by a wide margin.
CHED notes two exclusions in that table: BARMM private HEIs (85) and other government schools in BARMM (7) are not counted, so national totals for those categories understate the real number.
What Free Tuition Covers
Republic Act 10931, the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act of 2017, removed tuition and other school fees for undergraduate students at SUCs. It also extended free higher education to qualifying LUCs — CHED has publicised batches of LUCs becoming eligible — and created a student loan programme under Section 8 available to Filipino students enrolling in SUCs, LUCs, private HEIs and TESDA-registered TVET programmes.
Two things it does not do:
It does not remove admission requirements. Universities have said this explicitly. The University of Southeastern Philippines, for instance, points applicants to Section 4 of RA 10931 and to CHED Memorandum Order No. 105, series of 2017, which states that Grade 12 graduates may enrol in any programme "subject to the admission requirements of the admitting higher education institution." Free does not mean open.
It does not cover the cost of living. Board, transport, meals, materials and equipment are on you, and for a student who has to relocate to reach an SUC campus those costs dwarf the tuition that was waived. Our free tuition universities guide breaks down what still gets charged, and the UniFAST guide covers the subsidies that exist for the rest.
Choosing Between an SUC and a Private University
Sector is the wrong unit of comparison. A few things that are true at sector level and worth knowing anyway:
SUCs are absent from the CHED Autonomous status list by design. That status is granted only to private higher education institutions; SUC autonomy comes from their charters and RA 8292. The absence of a state university from that list is not a quality signal. Our guide to top universities in the Philippines explains all four official quality markers and which sector each one applies to.
Entrance competition at SUCs is often tighter than at private universities, precisely because tuition is free. Where a private university may admit most applicants who meet a threshold, an SUC is frequently allocating a fixed number of slots per programme against a much larger applicant pool.
Accreditation is where the comparison actually lives. AACCUP accredits chartered public institutions; PAASCU and PACUCOA cover much of the private sector. All of them award levels, and a programme's level tells you more than its sector. Our school accreditation guide sets out how the systems map onto each other.
A Caveat on Any List of SUCs
This list is a snapshot. Congress creates new SUCs and converts state colleges into state universities on a rolling basis, and CHED must separately determine and declare that an institution has met the operational requirements before a conversion takes effect. Occidental Mindoro State College, in this list under MIMAROPA, was approved for university status by CHED in 2026.
If you need certainty about a specific institution's current status and the programmes it is authorised to offer, check CHED's own institution and programme listings rather than any secondary list, including this one.
Sources
- Commission on Higher Education, "Distribution of HEIs AY 2024-25" (as of 26 June 2025) — counts of private HEIs, LUCs, other government schools, SUC main and SUC satellite campuses by region, and the BARMM exclusion note — https://legacy.ched.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/HEIs-Distribution-AY-2024-25-as-of-26June2025.pdf
- Department of Budget and Management, 2025 staffing summary, Volume on State Universities and Colleges — the region-by-region enumeration of SUCs carrying budget lines — https://www.dbm.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/Staffing/STAFFING2025/SUCS/SUCS.pdf
- Republic Act No. 8292, the Higher Education Modernization Act of 1997 — governing board composition, Board of Regents and Board of Trustees, and the presidency — https://chanrobles.com/republicactno8292.htm
- Commission on Higher Education, "78 Local Universities and Colleges now eligible for Free Higher Education" — LUC eligibility under RA 10931 — https://ched.gov.ph/78-local-universities-colleges-now-eligible-free-higher-education/
- University of Southeastern Philippines, Frequently Asked Questions — the RA 10931 Section 4 and CMO No. 105 s. 2017 position on admission requirements under free tuition — https://www.usep.edu.ph/frequently-asked-questions/
- Commission on Higher Education, "CHED clarifies conditions on state college conversions" — https://ched.gov.ph/ched-clarifies-conditions-state-college-conversions/
- The Manila Times, "Occidental Mindoro State College now a university with CHEd approval" — https://www.manilatimes.net/2026/06/19/regions/occidental-mindoro-state-college-now-a-university-with-ched-approval-85/2368650
