Business Education registered the highest enrollment among the tertiary courses in Western Visayas, comprising 23 percent or 43,930 of the entire college population in the region.

Region 6 has 191,000 college students for academic year 2007-2008, a report of the Philippine Information Agency said.

Rex Casiple, OIC-chief education program specialist of the Commission on Higher Education 6, said Business Education also posted the highest enrollment last year. It is followed by Medical-related courses, with 20 percent or 38,200, and Teacher Education, with 15 percent or 28,650, the report said.

Other disciplines included in the top five are Information Technology Education, with 15,280 or 8.0 percent, and Maritime Education with 13,370 or 7.0 percent.

Casiple said the top five are included in CHED's top priority courses in the region which has consistently garnered high enrolment rates, it added.

He said, however that its other priority courses got low enrolment, including Agriculture and Fisheries, 4.0 percent, and Engineering Technology, 6.0 percent.

It is ironic that Western Visayas being an agricultural and fishery area cannot entice its students to take up these courses, Casiple said.

More graduates in Agriculture and Fisheries can enhance the potentials of the region in these areas, he said in the report.

Moreover, CHED records also show that Iloilo City colleges and universities have the highest enrolment, followed by Bacolod City, then Iloilo Province and Negros Occidental.

The graduation rate of those who entered college five years ago is 35 percent, records also show, the report said.

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