TL;DR — PCU publishes a document checklist for every level from Grade 1 to post-doctoral, which is more than most Manila universities put online. What it does not publish is tuition, and its calendar banners run stale. Only one programme, Juris Doctor, lists an entrance examination. New applicants register through the admissions portal; returning students follow a six-office enrolment loop.
Philippine Christian University sits at 1648 Taft Avenue corner Pedro Gil Street in Malate, Manila, a short walk from the Pedro Gil LRT station. It was established on October 6, 1946, became a university in 1976, and CHED granted it Full Autonomous Status in 2017. Basics and contacts are on our Philippine Christian University listing, and the wider field is on our Manila schools page.
This guide sets out what PCU actually asks for, level by level, and where the published material stops.
Two portals, and picking the right one
PCU splits its intake at the portal level, and choosing wrong wastes a week.
- New applicants and transferees register at the admissions portal:
myportal.pcu.edu.ph/padmission - Enrolled and returning students use the main student portal:
myportal.pcu.edu.ph
If you already have a PCU student record, you are in the second group even if you have been away for a term.
Basic education requirements
PCU's basic education runs as three named units, each with its own office and phone number.
Union Elementary School
New Grade 1 students: original PSA birth certificate, original Kinder Form 138, two 1x1 ID photos. Transferees: the same three, plus a Good Moral Certificate. Contact (02) 8523-1540 or 0945 140 9898, [email protected].
Union High School of Manila (junior high)
Report card (Form 138), PSA birth certificate, Good Moral Certificate, two 1x1 coloured photos with a white background, and an ESC certificate. Contact (02) 8523-3089 or 0977 672 4478, [email protected].
Senior High School
Report card (Form 138), PSA birth certificate, Good Moral Certificate, four 1x1 photos, and an ESC or QVA certificate for private school graduates. Contact (+632) 8523-2186 or 0956 501 4455, [email protected].
Two details are worth pulling out. First, the photo counts differ by level — two for elementary and junior high, four for senior high — and being short at the counter is a return trip. Second, the ESC and voucher certificates are listed as requirements, not options. If you are moving up from a private junior high, the QVA path is how the senior high subsidy follows you; our SHS voucher program guide explains how the certificate is claimed, and the ESC grant guide covers the junior high equivalent.
College requirements
New students
- Form 138
- Certificate of Good Moral Character
- Two copies of a 2x2 photo
Transferees
- Certificate of Transfer Credential (honorable dismissal)
- Certificate of grades for evaluation, or transcript of records
- Certificate of Good Moral Character
- Proof of residency, for example a barangay clearance
- Photos with a white background: two 2x2 and four 1x1
The transferee list is noticeably heavier than the new-student list, and the proof of residency line is unusual — most Manila universities do not ask for it. Have a barangay clearance in hand rather than discovering the requirement at the counter.
College admissions: (+632) 8526-5107, [email protected].
Foreign students
PCU publishes separate lists, which is useful because the immigration documents are the long pole in the process.
College
- Student visa and/or passport, photocopy
- Authenticated transcript of records and scholastic records
- Certificate of Good Moral Character
- Certificate of Eligibility and Study Permit
- Alien Certificate of Registration (ACR), photocopy
Junior high school
- Transcript of records and scholastic records
- Certificate of Good Moral Character
- Two 1x1 photos
- Study permit from the Bureau of Immigration
- Foreign student fee
The ACR I-Card is the item that takes longest and is easiest to get wrong; our ACR I-Card guide for foreign students walks through what the Bureau of Immigration expects. PCU does not publish the amount of the foreign student fee.
Graduate school
| Programme | Published requirements |
|---|---|
| Master's | Transcript of records, certificate of employment, birth certificate (single) or marriage certificate (married) |
| Doctoral | Transcript of records, certificate of employment, birth certificate or marriage certificate |
| Post-doctoral | Transcript of records showing an earned PhD or doctoral programme, birth or marriage certificate |
| Juris Doctor, incoming freshman | Original transcript of records, certificate of good morals, certificate of employment if working, four 2x2 photos, entrance examination |
| Juris Doctor, transferee | Honorable dismissal, copy of transcript of records, certificate of good moral character, certificate of employment if working, four 2x2 photos, entrance examination |
| Cross-enrollees | Permit to cross-enrol |
| Institute of Religious Studies, master's and doctoral | Transcript of records, certificate of employment, birth or marriage certificate, plus an essay of roughly 1,000 words on the reason for entering graduate study, vocational goals, and the intended area of study |
The Juris Doctor entrance examination is the only entrance test PCU names anywhere in its published admission material. The Institute of Religious Studies essay is the only written submission. If you are applying anywhere else in the university, assume the file review carries the decision — but ask, because absence from a web page is not the same as absence from the process.
The certificate of employment appearing on almost every graduate list tells you something about the intake: these are programmes built around working students, and the graduate school runs on a trimestral calendar rather than semesters.
Enrolment: the six-office loop
For returning students PCU publishes a fixed sequence, and step one is a gate rather than a formality.
- Statement of Account issuance — Accounting Office. The office verifies you have no outstanding balance from the previous semester. Students with financial obligations are not allowed to enrol.
- Payment of fees — Treasury Office. Down payment or full payment. Official receipts issued on confirmation.
- Subject encoding (pre-registration) — College Department. You consult the department for course advisement, and the advised subjects are encoded.
- Enrolment validation and SOA re-issuance — you submit the pre-registration form, Accounting validates it and re-issues the Statement of Account.
- Certificate of Registration issuance — Registrar's Office. The COR is what makes the enrolment official.
- ID validation — ICTC, on presentation of the COR.
New students go through the admissions portal first, then join a comparable payment-and-registration sequence.
Two naming quirks worth knowing
PCU's basic education units do not carry the PCU name. The elementary school is Union Elementary School and the junior high is Union High School of Manila, both with their own phone numbers and email addresses. That matters in two places: when you are looking for the right office to call, and later when your child transfers out and another school asks for records issued under a name that does not match the university on the diploma. Keep the connection documented.
The second is the autonomy status. CHED granted PCU Full Autonomous Status in 2017, and the university leads with it. Autonomy is an institution-level judgement — it gives a university more freedom over its own programmes and less routine CHED supervision. It is not a statement about any single degree, and it is not a substitute for asking about a specific programme's accreditation and board results.
Read the dates twice
PCU's site carries a banner announcing enrolment "ongoing until January 31, 2025" and a One-Stop Enrolment starting January 6, 2025, while elsewhere on the same site the published academic calendar covers AY 2026-2027, with graduate school trimestral classes beginning August 3, 2026 and the first trimester ending November 7, 2026.
That mismatch means the promotional banners have not been cleared between cycles. Do not plan around any date you read on a banner. Email [email protected] or call 0951 563 3514 or (02) 8523-2159 and get the current cycle in writing.
What PCU does not publish
- Tuition. No figures for any level. The site covers requirements, procedures and payment channels but never amounts. Our separate PCU tuition fee guide collects what is available and flags which parts are estimates rather than official figures — treat the Accounting Office as the only authority.
- The foreign student fee amount.
- Entrance exam details for anything other than Juris Doctor.
- Scholarship criteria in a single place. There is a scholarship application route and an academic scholarship announcement, but no consolidated eligibility table.
Contacts
- Admissions, college: (+632) 8526-5107, [email protected]
- General admissions: 0951 563 3514, (02) 8523-2159
- Address: 1648 Taft Avenue corner Pedro Gil Street, Malate, Manila, PO Box 907
- Office hours as published: Monday to Friday 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM, Saturday 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM
Sources
- Philippine Christian University, Admission page — https://pcu.edu.ph/admission/
- Philippine Christian University, home page — https://pcu.edu.ph/
