MANILA, Philippines – Having “shared” IT networks among state universities and colleges (SUCs) will improve research and development while allowing students to transact online, according to Catanduanes Representative Joseph Santiago.

Santiago, who heads the House committee on information and communications technology, said SUCs are lagging behind when it comes to using services such as paying tuition or monitoring student records, such as grades, on the Internet.

Citing colleges in the United States, he suggested the creation of a shared network that will pool resources and create new opportunities for research and development.

A shared network will also allow schools to lessen administrative costs, reduce paperwork and generate more savings.

Santiago, a former commissioner of the National Telecommunications Commission, said some campuses continue to experience long queues during enrolment and when students get their grades.

"This is what community colleges in the U.S. are doing. Groups of community colleges share IT systems that allow their students to pay fees online via credit or debit cards, and access their grades electronically," Santiago said in a statement.

There are 110 SUCs in the Philippines, with 444 main and satellite campuses nationwide. Nearly a million students are enrolled in SUCs.

The National Computer Center (NCC), which develops websites for local government units and SUCs, showed sucsgraph that there are 60 SUCs that have websites with about 50 sites classified as “’interactive”.

Fifty SUCs, meanwhile, still don’t have websites.