{"id":3680,"date":"2015-04-02T17:46:05","date_gmt":"2015-04-02T17:46:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/?p=3680"},"modified":"2015-04-02T17:46:05","modified_gmt":"2015-04-02T17:46:05","slug":"oxford-confirms-marcos-got-only-a-special-diploma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/?p=3680","title":{"rendered":"Oxford confirms Marcos got only a ‘special diploma’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The senator did not graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, as he claims. <\/em><\/p>\n

MANILA, Philippines<\/span><\/strong> \u2014\u00a0When Ferdinand \u201cBongbong\u201d Marcos Jr said he earned a \u201cdiploma in political science<\/a>\u201d from Oxford University, he misled the Filipinos into believing that he really graduated with a bachelor’s degree.<\/p>\n

First, he ‘forgot’ the real name of the diploma he acquired. It was a only \u201cspecial diploma in social studies,\u201d not political science. In an email, the spokesperson for the University of Oxford, Clare Woodcock, clarified.
\n“We can confirm that a Ferdinand Marcos matriculated at the University of Oxford in 1975 to read for a BA in Philosophy, Philosophy and Economics (PPE). But, according to our records, he did not complete his degree, but was awarded a Special Diploma in Social Studies in 1978.”<\/p>\n

The e-mail was addressed to Matthew Montagu-Pollock, a graduate of Oxford University, who, after reading the Rappler report, made his own inquiry. We were able to obtain a copy of the email response.<\/p>\n

Montagu-Pollock explained in his post<\/a>ing the Rappler comments section that ‘matriculated’ means \u201cbegan the course.\u201d He continued: \u201cMarcos instead left [Oxford University] with a diploma, which is not, in fact, a degree.\u201d<\/p>\n

We then clarified with Robert Wilkins, a tutor at St Edmund Hall, the college that Marcos Jr attended, what this \u201cspecial diploma\u201d was all about. He told us in an e-mail: ‘The Special Diploma operated before my time here, but my understanding is that it was a two-year course that provided a foundation for subsequent study of PPE at the Finals level. It is no longer offered by the University.’<\/p>\n

Both Woodcock and Wilkins are clear on the crux of the issue: Marcos Jr did not obtain a BA. He did not complete a university degree.<\/p>\n

A contemporary of Bongbong Marcos at St Edmund Hall explained: “My understanding is that the special diploma was something given to students on the rare occasion that they failed their first year preliminary examinations and hence disqualified themselves from going on to receive a Bachelor’s degree.”<\/p>\n

Similarly, a student from the UK who made his own inquiries e-mailed us: “This could be for someone who didn’t have good enough academic qualifications and who would therefore not be offered a place on a full standard undergraduate course. It would set a bad precedent by lowering standards\u2014a bit like a special diploma for ‘special needs’ students.”<\/p>\n

It was obviously more of a political accommodation.<\/p>\n

A student from a UK university said that \u201canyone who only has a diploma did not complete the 3-year degree course, did not take the exams, and therefore has not been conferred a BA.\u201d<\/p>\n

Essentially this means that Marcos is a college dropout, in the sense that he has not completed a degree to Bachelor level. (Rappler.com)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The senator did not graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, as he claims.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,49],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3680"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3680\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}