Project FirstGen Philippines

You wouldn’t be alone if you have not considered yourself a FirstGen student before becoming aware of Project FirstGen Philippines. While there are thousands of students just like yourself in the Philippines, being FirstGen does not have received much attention in the discourse around access to higher education.

To keep it simple, you are a FirstGen student if you are the first in your family to pursue higher education. There are a variety of definitions out there that aim at being as precise as possible. Some include the minimum duration your parents must have studied or if they dropped out along the way. Here at Project FirstGen Philippines, we want to keep the definition as simple and actionable as possible to extend our support to those, that can benefit the most from it.

We recognize that being FirstGen is first and foremost an indication of social background, which was not defined by an academic culture. By that, we understand that FirstGen students might not be as familiar with the higher education environment as those students that had the opportunity to ask their family members for advise.

Meet Maria and John

When researchers speak about access to universities not being fairly distributed, they usually refer to a lack of equity in higher education. You might have heard about the term equality, which refers to same (read equal) support to everyone who pursues a degree at a university. Equity on the other side means that each student receives the support they would need given their socio-economic background. In other words: students that have less access to financial funding but also higher education knowledge and culture would receive more support than those that already have access given their family background.

You can see, that not only access to finances matters but also social aspects. Let us clarify this a bit more. Let’s imagine two future students, Maria and John, who just finished high school with similar degrees. While John’s parents have finished their bachelor degrees in the past, Maria’s parents did not attend university. Both parents, however, are willing to fully financially cover their child’s education at the local university.

SecondGen student John

Before applying, John is sitting together with his parents during Sunday lunch. He is nervous about the entry exam, the new environment at university, he feels lost. Everything seems new and unfamiliar but also very exciting. He is asking his parents for advise to accomplish all expectations set by the university in time. Thinking back to their own experiences while studying for their bachelors, they inform him about the application process, how to learn for the entry exam, and offer him to meet a friend of theirs who started working at the university after they have graduated together in the past. With this knowledge, John starts preparing for the entry exam using the books his family owns at home.

FirstGen student Maria

A few houses further to John’s family, Maria is browsing the internet. She is looking for tips and tricks for the entry exam but struggles to get familiar with the academic languages used in all guides she can find. Most of her time is used to search for definitions of words she hasn’t heard before, which makes it hard for her to concentrate. After giving up on this approach, she tries to find experiences of others that have attended the exam in the past but one thought keeps on popping up in her mind: “Do I really belong there? All of this seems so foreign to me, I even wonder if I can find friends at university if they apparently are so different to me.” Demotivated, she is closing her laptop and tells herself that she will continue another day. After talking with her parents, they reassure her of their support but cannot provide much advise since they do not know anyone who went through the entry exam in the past.

Access is more than just Money

Of course, John’s and Maria’s experiences are very simplified here. It only covers the first steps of their educational journey and real life is always more complex than clear cut examples. What this comparison is meant to highlight, though, is that being able to afford university does not automatically lead to equitable access to higher education.

Even though Maria would have had the funding for attending her local university, she still has not the same access to knowledge, language, and culture of the higher education environment. Yes, being a FirstGen student is also very often related to a lack of funding but even if there would be an equal financial playing field, Maria would still struggle more to pursue her degree than John.

If you can see yourself more in Maria than John, you are a FirstGen student and we at Project FirstGen Philippines are happy to work with you. We are excited to hear from you, not only if you happen to find yourself at the application process like Maria but during all stages of your educational journey.