MANILA—The University of the Philippines (UP) will not hold its in-person college entrance exam to select freshmen for Academic Year 2023-2024, the head of its admissions office said late Friday.

In a text message to ABS-CBN News, UP Office of Admissions Director Francisco de Los Reyes confirmed that the premier state university was suspending the UP College Admissions Test (UPCAT) for the third consecutive year.

In his column published early Friday by the Philippine Daily Inquirer, De Los Reyes cited the "continuing health risks and operational hurdles posed by in-person exams" due to the COVID-19 pandemic as the reason for canceling the UPCAT again.

UP will continue to select college freshmen through its admissions score model, which was developed by the university's data scientists and vetted by experts, De Los Reyes wrote in his column.

• UP developing algorithm for choosing enrollees: official
• UP discussing possible suspension of UPCAT

The decision comes after other higher education institutions, such as the Ateneo de Manila University and the University of Santo Tomas, decided to resume their own college entrance tests.

• Ateneo to resume college entrance test this year

The UPCAT is known to be one of the toughest college entrance tests, taken by hundreds of thousands of applicants annually.