TL;DR: Central Philippine University is the only Iloilo school in this guide that publishes what it charges — a full tuition and fees schedule for SY 2026-2027 covering collegiate, senior high and pre-collegiate levels — and it holds CHED Autonomous Status to 15 September 2027 and ISO 21001:2018 certification. The strongest published exam results in the city belong to West Visayas State University, which is public. Every tuition range this page used to carry has been removed.
What Changed on This Page
This guide previously printed an annual tuition range for all ten schools and a comparison table built from them, plus claims about which schools had "strong board exam passing rates".
None of the tuition figures matched a schedule any of those schools publishes. None of the passing-rate claims could be traced to a PRC release. All of it has been removed rather than restated more vaguely.
What follows is organised by what can actually be checked.
The Iloilo Claims That Check Out
Central Philippine University — credentials and, unusually, prices
CPU states two credentials that are specific enough to verify and rare enough to matter:
- CHED Autonomous Status, granted 16 September 2024 and running to 15 September 2027. Autonomous status is CHED's highest deregulated tier and is granted to a small minority of private institutions.
- ISO 21001:2018 certification for educational organisations management, valid through August 2028.
And it publishes a tuition and fees schedule for SY 2026-2027, split into collegiate, senior high school and pre-collegiate levels. The schedule is posted as images rather than text, so it does not show up in search — but it exists, on the university's own site, which is more than any other school in this guide offers.
West Visayas State University — the strongest results in the city
WVSU in La Paz is a state university, so it is outside the strict scope of a private schools guide. It belongs here anyway, because a family comparing Iloilo options should know what the alternative looks like.
| Examination | WVSU result | National |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 Bar, 11-50 examinee bracket, overall | 1st nationally, 100.00% | 48.98% |
| 2025 Bar, 11-50 bracket, first-time takers | 1st-equal nationally, 100.00% | — |
| Physician Licensure, Oct 2025, first-time takers | 92/94 (97.87%) | 87.84% |
| Physician Licensure, Mar 2026, overall | 21/21 (100.00%) | 70.26% |
WVSU also publishes a signed schedule of fees, and its College of Medicine first-semester totals — PHP 26,975 in year one, PHP 26,725 in years two and three, PHP 54,375 in year four — are the lowest published medical fees in the country by a wide margin. Our best medical schools guide has the comparison.
University of San Agustin — founding and affiliations
USA states it was founded by the Augustinian friars in 1904, and displays PAASCU, PACUCOA, ACUP and ASEACCU affiliations. It publishes payment options rather than a rate schedule, so the amounts still have to come from admissions.
The Schools, Without Invented Prices
| School | Area | Type | What is checkable |
|---|---|---|---|
| Central Philippine University | Jaro, Iloilo City | Protestant (Baptist), K-12 and university | CHED Autonomous Status to 2027, ISO 21001:2018, publishes SY 2026-2027 fees |
| University of San Agustin | City Proper | Catholic (Augustinian), K-12 and university | Founded 1904; PAASCU, PACUCOA, ACUP, ASEACCU affiliations |
| Ateneo de Iloilo – Santa Maria Catholic School | Bo. Obrero | Catholic (Jesuit), K-12 | Part of the national Ateneo network; PAASCU accreditation |
| Assumption Iloilo | Mandurriao | Catholic (Religious of the Assumption) | Part of the national Assumption network |
| St. Paul University Iloilo | City Proper | Catholic (Paulinian), K-12 and college | Part of the St. Paul University System |
| John B. Lacson Foundation Maritime University | Molo | Non-sectarian, maritime | Maritime programmes; ask about current MARINA and CHED compliance |
| Colegio de San Jose | Jaro | Catholic, K-12 | Long-established Jaro school |
| Iloilo Scholastic Academy | Jaro | Non-sectarian, pre-school to SHS | Smaller institution, smaller class sizes |
| Western Institute of Technology | La Paz | Non-sectarian, K-12 and college | Engineering, IT and criminal justice programmes |
| St. Therese – MTC Colleges | La Paz | Non-sectarian, K-12 and college | Not listed in our directory; verify directly |
Every entry above previously carried an annual fee range. Only CPU's can be replaced with something real.
Senior High in Iloilo Works Differently Now
If you are choosing for Grade 11, the strand question no longer applies.
DepEd Order No. 017, s. 2026 removed the strand layer. There are two tracks, Academic and Technical-Professional, and inside the Academic Track five clusters of electives: Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities; Business and Entrepreneurship; Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics; Sports, Health and Wellness; and Field Experience. The order states plainly that clusters are not strands, because a school need not offer everything inside one and a learner may pick across several.
| Learner | Structure that applies |
|---|---|
| Grade 11 from SY 2026-2027 onward | Two tracks, no strands, five Academic elective clusters |
| Grade 12 in a non-pilot school, SY 2026-2027 | The old tracks and named strands |
| Grade 12 from SY 2027-2028 onward | No strands |
Ask which electives a school will actually run, and how many learners took each one this year. Our academic strands guide covers the change.
The voucher. Section 48 and Table 13 of DepEd Order No. 011, s. 2026, effective SY 2026-2027, set the maximum at PHP 20,000 a year in highly urbanised cities outside NCR and PHP 17,500 elsewhere for Categories A, B and C, with Categories D and E at PHP 16,000 and PHP 14,000. Iloilo City is a highly urbanised city. The school is paid the lower of its total fees or the cap, and nobody qualifies automatically: Categories A to D file at the private senior high school they choose, and only Category E applies through OVAP. See our SHS voucher guide.
How to Choose in Iloilo
Start with CPU's published schedule, whether or not CPU is your first choice. It gives you a real anchor for what an Iloilo private education costs, which you can then use to sanity-check any figure a competitor quotes you verbally.
Ask every other registrar for the schedule of fees in writing, and ask whether it is annual or per semester, what the payment options cost, and what sits outside tuition.
Ask for passers and examinees by cycle for any programme with a board exam. Two numbers, three cycles. "Strong track record" is not an answer.
For maritime, ask about shipboard training placement specifically. A maritime degree without the required sea service does not produce a certificated officer, and placement arrangements are the part that varies.
Check accreditation at programme level. PAASCU and PACUCOA accredit programmes at levels, and CHED's Autonomous, Deregulated, Centre of Excellence and Centre of Development designations are separate and institution-wide. Ask which one is being claimed.
Weigh the state option honestly. WVSU's published results and published fees make it the benchmark in this city, and a family that rules out public education on reputation alone is ruling out the strongest evidence in Iloilo.
Visit on a normal school day, not an open house, and look at the laboratories any science or engineering programme claims to have.
Sources
- Central Philippine University — Tuition and Fees, SY 2026-2027 (official)
- Central Philippine University — official site, CHED Autonomous Status and ISO certification
- University of San Agustin — official site, founding and affiliations
- West Visayas State University — Schedule of Fees (official signed PDF)
- PRC — October 2025 Physician Licensure Examination results and Performance of Schools (official)
- PRC — March 2026 Physician Licensure Examination results and Performance of Schools (official)
- Supreme Court of the Philippines — Press Briefer, 7 January 2026 (2025 Bar Examinations results)
- DepEd — DO 017, s. 2026, Strengthened Senior High School Curriculum (official)
- PEAC — Senior High School Voucher Program
- DepEd — DO 011, s. 2026, Revised Guidelines on the Implementation of Expanded Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education (E-GASTPE)
- DepEd — DO 011, s. 2026, full signed order (PDF): Section 33 with Tables 8 and 9 for the categories, Section 48 and Table 13 for voucher amounts, Section 83 for the repealing clause
- SchoolFinderPH — Iloilo City schools directory
- SchoolFinderPH — Best Medical Schools in the Philippines
- SchoolFinderPH — Academic Strands and What Replaced Them
Disclaimer: licensure figures describe the cycles named and change every examination period. Fee schedules are published by the school for the term stated and change annually. Where this page says a school publishes no fee schedule, that means we could not find one, not that the school has no fees. Confirm everything at the source.
Ready to find the right school? Browse schools or compare programmes, tuition and reviews across hundreds of Philippine schools on SchoolFinderPH.
