Binalatongan Community College

Binalatongan Community College is a city college in San Carlos City, Pangasinan, established by local ordinance to provide affordable higher education for poor but academically qualified students. Binalatongan is the historic name of San Carlos City, and the college's use of it signals the local rather than national character of the institution. It is administered locally while its programmes are regulated by the Commission on Higher Education, the same body that recognises programmes at private and state institutions. San Carlos City already hosts a campus of Pangasinan State University, so the community college operates alongside a state institution rather than in place of one, which is the usual pattern for locally funded colleges in the province: they exist to widen access rather than to duplicate what the state system already provides. For applicants the distinction from a state university lies in governance rather than in the standing of the qualification: degrees are recognised by the Commission on Higher Education either way, while admission policy, fees and funding rest with the city government. That local control is what allows a community college to target admission at students from the city who would otherwise be priced out of higher education.