TL;DR — Velez College is a health sciences college in Cebu City with four component colleges: Nursing, Medical Technology, Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy, and Arts and Sciences. There is no medicine program on site — graduates route to the affiliated Cebu Institute of Medicine. Entry is through the Velez College Entrance Test (VCET), with a published admission fee of 700 pesos. One thing to know before anything else: the college website has been unreachable throughout our checks in September 2026, so everything here needs confirming by phone.
Start with the website problem
We check every school's own site before writing about it. velezcollege.com does not respond. The domain resolves to two IP addresses; both reset the connection on port 443 and time out on port 80, with and without the www prefix, using a normal browser user agent. It is not a scraper block — the connection never establishes.
The last public captures of the working site are from 2024. A capture from late October 2025 shows a default XAMPP server dashboard at the domain, which is what a server looks like when the application behind it is gone.
What that means for you practically:
- Do not rely on any course list, requirement or fee you find online, including this one, without a phone confirmation.
- The published landline is (032) 253 1871. Cashier: (032) 253 6887.
- The college has maintained active Facebook, Instagram and X accounts, which is where an institution in this position usually posts enrolment announcements.
Everything that follows is from the college's own pages, as last published. Where a statement is old enough to have plausibly changed, we say so.
The four colleges
Velez College grew out of the Cebu (Velez) General Hospital School of Nursing, founded in school year 1952-1953 by Epifania Mendoza Velez with the support of Dr. Jacinto Velez Sr. The first batch — 26 nurses — received the title Graduate Nurse in April 1955. The college itself was incorporated on March 28, 1966.
College of Nursing — BS Nursing
The original program, and still the flagship. The three-year hospital diploma was phased out in school year 1967-1968 in favour of a five-year baccalaureate, which received government recognition in 1973, and was restructured to a four-year program in school year 1976-1977 at the government's request. The current curriculum follows CHED Memorandum Order 14 series of 2009.
The college's own framing is that students "practice exclusively at our very own health facility, Cebu (Velez) General Hospital" in small, hands-on classes. It describes itself as ranked among the top ten nursing schools in the country with consistently high performance in the Nurse Licensure Examination — that is the school's characterisation of itself, and it does not publish the underlying passing-rate figures. Check the PRC's own published results before accepting it.
BS Nursing ends at the Nurse Licensure Examination; see BS Nursing for what the degree involves.
College of Medical Technology — BS Medical Technology
Opened in 1967 with 104 female and 31 male students. Four years: general education for the first two, then the professional core in third year — haematology, immunohematology, clinical chemistry, clinical microscopy, general pathology, histopathologic and cytologic techniques, laws and bioethics, laboratory management, microbiology, parasitology, and immunology-serology. Later curriculum revisions added cytogenetics, basic pharmacology, and principles and strategies of teaching health education.
The detail worth noting: when CHED shortened the internship training program from twelve months to six, Velez College opted for an eleven-month program instead. Interns have trained at the Cebu Velez General Hospital laboratory and, later, at Perpetual Succour Hospital laboratory.
The department also services the BS Nursing and BS Biology students, which is how we know Arts and Sciences runs a biology program.
BS Medical Technology ends at the Medical Technologist Licensure Examination. See BS Medical Technology, and BS Nursing vs MedTech if you are choosing between the two.
College of Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy
Opened in school year 1992-1993, leading to Bachelor of Science in Physical Therapy and Bachelor of Science in Occupational Therapy. First batch graduated in 1997. The college's own description states that BSOT and BSPT are five-year courses.
That five-year figure comes from a page written well before the most recent CHED policy revisions, so treat it as the college's historical structure and confirm the present duration. Both degrees end at PRC licensure examinations — see BS Physical Therapy and BS Occupational Therapy.
Occupational therapy is the rarer of the two in the Philippines. If OT is what you want, the shortlist of schools that actually run it is short, and Velez is on it.
College of Arts and Sciences
The oldest unit after nursing — the College of Liberal Arts opened in school year 1966-1967. Its current published program set is thin; BS Biology is confirmed by reference from the medical technology page. This is the college where a phone call is most necessary, because there is no published program list.
No medicine on site, but a route to it
Velez College does not run a Doctor of Medicine program. Its graduates pursue the MD through the affiliated Cebu Institute of Medicine, and the medical technology college has long described itself as "a good training ground for students who would like to become doctors someday."
That affiliation is the actual value proposition for a pre-med student in Cebu: a four-year science degree at Velez with an established path onward. Read our Cebu Institute of Medicine guide alongside this one if that is your plan.
Admission: the VCET
The college's admission policy states it reserves the right to admit or refuse students on the basis of academic standing, moral character, credentials and other requirements. Applicants must be graduating or graduated senior high students from DepEd-recognised schools, transferees from other institutions, or graduates and transferees from foreign schools.
Documents must be presented to the Admissions Office before you take the VCET.
Graduating senior high applicants submitted an accomplished student application form, Grade 11 report card with first and second semester final grades, certificate of good moral character, and a PSA birth certificate.
College transferees and graduates from international schools submitted the application form, transcript of records or informative copy of grades, certificate of good moral character, and a PSA birth certificate.
The last published test administration: on-site, Saturdays, 8:00 to 11:00 am, with an admission fee of 700 pesos. Things to bring were a school ID, pencil, sharpener and rubber eraser.
Application windows in that publication ran roughly October to May for graduating senior high students, with transferee applications opening in January.
What is not published
- No tuition figure of any kind. The 700 peso admission fee is the only amount the college has put in writing.
- No scholarship page or named awards.
- No senior high program details, despite the school being listed as offering senior high.
- No licensure passing rates, only self-descriptions of performance.
- No current Arts and Sciences program list.
The call sheet
Because the website is not available, everything you need has to come out of one phone call. Write these down before you dial:
- Which programs are currently open for enrolment, and which have been closed or suspended?
- What does the College of Arts and Sciences actually offer besides BS Biology?
- Are BSPT and BSOT still five-year programs, or have they moved to the current CHED structure?
- What is tuition per unit or per semester, by program and year level?
- What is the VCET schedule and application deadline for the coming school year, and is the admission fee still 700 pesos?
- What are the current PAASCU accreditation levels for each program?
- Is the Cebu Institute of Medicine articulation still in place, and does it come with any preference for Velez graduates?
- Where do students do clinical rotations now — is Cebu (Velez) General Hospital still the primary site?
Get the answers from the registrar or admissions office rather than a social media reply, and ask for anything about money in writing.
Who Velez suits, with a caveat
A Cebu student aiming at nursing, medical technology or therapy who values a small college with its own hospital and a direct affiliation to a medical school. Historically that has been a strong package, and the PAASCU Level III on nursing is a real credential.
The caveat is unavoidable: an institution whose website has been down for months is harder to plan around, and every figure above needs a phone call. Go in with a written list of questions — current programs, current tuition, current VCET schedule, current accreditation levels — and get answers before you pay anything.
If you want alternatives while you wait for a callback, see our Cebu City directory and the best private schools in Cebu roundup.
Sources
- Velez College, About Us — http://www.velezcollege.com/?page_id=16
- Velez College, College of Nursing — http://www.velezcollege.com/?page_id=83
- Velez College, College of Medical Technology — http://www.velezcollege.com/?page_id=97
- Velez College, College of Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy — http://www.velezcollege.com/?page_id=99
- Velez College, Admission — http://www.velezcollege.com/?page_id=2204
- Velez College, homepage and news — http://www.velezcollege.com/
Note: all six pages above were unreachable at the time of writing. They were read from publicly archived captures of the college's own site dated 2024, and the admission page carries the college's own note that it was updated October 10, 2023.