The 100th year of the University of the Philippines is a time for a series of big parties, oblation runs, centennial lectures, a Big Dome Alumni homecoming, several theatrical extravaganzas and of course the Mother of all Lantern Parades to close the year.
Not even a typhoon could stop the Alumni homecoming. But the only lowdown could be that UP once more failed to make it to the final four of the UAAP basketball tourney (Ateneo won!). Oh well we can look forward to the bicentennial for that. :-)
At the risk of being called as the centennial party pooper, I will have to dish out criticisms not of my own but that of an American professor that the UP invited to do a critique in 1947. The destructive war just behind it, UP under President Bienvenido Gonzales invited Professor Harley Harris Bartlett of the University of Michigan to critique the university, its priorities and the state of higher education in the Philippines. Bartlett an eminent botanist and Southeast Asian scholar; in his convocation address to the university, identified key areas that UP should focus, namely research and strengthening graduate programs . Bartlett believed that by doing so, the Philippines can kick start its development by laying the foundations of what we now call a “knowledge based economy”. Bartlett wanted a university that cuts across academic disciplines or what we now call as “interdisciplinarity”. Bartlett also envisioned a more international university.
Bartlett noted problems that have bedeviled UP since 1908 and up to the present. He noted that UP was losing its best profs, the low professors’ salaries, its obsession with increased state subsidy, Malacanang’s meddling in the Board of Regents, its ungrateful alumni (who refuse to give generously), abuse of academic freedom, and of course, the lack of a research culture. Bartlett’s prescription was like that of corporate restructuring; make UP competitive, make sure the best profs stay and kick out the mediocre ones, get external funds, focus on science and technology, improve graduate programs and make the university more autonomous.
Bartlett didn’t say it but from the context of the speech he really means to have a new UP charter. Even in 1947, the 1908 charter was oudated. If Bartlett were alive in 2008, he would wonder how come it took UP 61 years to have a new one.
Bartlett’s criticisms were respectfully taken but largely were not acted upon. The Philippines was a prostrate nation and America exacted onerous conditions for aid. UP was cash strapped.It is understandable why UP started to lag behind US and European universities at this time.
The professor’s critique is significant since UP’s weaknesses is also the weakness of Philippine higher education. Bartlett was livid in his critcism of the Bureau of Higher Education (the grandaddy of CHED) for giving university status to “diploma mills” that sprouted after the war. These private universities were given substantial autonomy and they did pirate many UP profs. Many of these “universities” offered only law programs and Bartlett was aghast that as a result, the Philippines would have an oversupply of lawyers. This would be a tragedy for the nation. If the nation were to succeed, Bartlett wanted an oversupply of scientists, engineers and good teachers.
These diploma mills were unlike Santo Tomas, Ateneo de Manila, De La Salle and Silliman. These schools had good reputations as teaching colleges. Bartlett believed that they didn’t compete with UP but helped UP in its work. (How about that? Schools don’t compete but collaborate! Ateneo helps De La Salle and vice versa!)
Bartlett then throws Filipinos the question. What is the value of the University of the Philippines to your nation?
The fortunes of the Republic is mirrored in the fortunes of UP. And in this centennial year, it doesn’t look good. Bartlett writes that UP is really a barometer of our people’s committment to democratic ideals. That the elite fails to give generously to UP (and public education) really betrays their lack of faith in these ideals. Public education then as now is the best way for people to lift themselves out of poverty. It is the best way of empowerment. But Bartlett predicted that this won’t happen. He predicted the spiralling cost of fees as education became a profitable business. And in its centennial year, UP is guilty too. I have known students (kids of government employees of SSL grades 15 and below) who have to drop out since they can’t fork out the 21K a sem fees.
Thus we have the anomaly that the people have private education as a first option (even if they have little means) then public if there isn’t any choice.
As for the teaching problem, Bartlett noted the anomaly that there were few assistant professors since many of them left UP. Today there are departments with one or two assistant professors and a lot of senior tenured professors (and a lot of instructors who have no postgraduate qualifications). These top (or bottom) heavy departments (and they are many of them in all of UP’s constituent campuses) with their frustrating politics tend to drive the juniors out of the campuses. This reduces the university’s competitiveness since it is the junior professors that churn out the best research and most innovative teaching.
The College of Science in Diliman is one of the few exceptions. Its professoriate is composed of all PhDs many of which are world class in their fields. The junior to senior professor ratio is respectable. The college is not exempt from the problem of attracting newly minted and young PhDs. The PhDs that were sent overseas in the 1980s and returned are now in mid-career as associate professors and professors. In 10 to 20 years we could expect some if not many to seek early retirement. Thus there is a need to attract young PhDs to the faculty. The science professors are experts in their fields but many fields have only one or two PhDs. We need teams of experts if we want to launch the Philippines into a science and knowledge based economy as Ateneo’s Father Nebres pointed out in his centennial lecture.
Despite these signs of progress which are uneven. UP has difficulty attracting new and young PhDs to staff its colleges as assistant professors. In some cases, a department in one UP campus has no choice but to “poach” a professor from another UP campus where the politics has become unbearable. This shows the dire straits the university is in. Also academic freedom has been abused and even Bartlett noticed this. Academic freedom has been made an excuse for lousy teaching and research. In his centennial lecture, Randy David defined the real sense of academic freedom and this includes profs showing up for class prepared!
UP may have to address its own way of doing things and its structure. It has to institute reforms to make the university competitive and in an academic community with petrified ideologies, we can expect that this would be met with strong resistance. I believe that the kind of nationalism that pervades the UP ethos is retrogressive. The idea of the university never limited itself to a certain class or nationality despite the sectarian origin of universities. Universities are meant for all who qualify for admission. If UP wants to be a University for Filipinos, it has to be a university for all, even non-Filipinos.
Reforming and reorienting UP may take a decade or even hundred years. The 2008 Charter gives the opportunity and the difficulty. President Emerlinda Roman, I believe is keenly aware of these. The work does not end with the centennial year and Roman’s term, it will continue with her successors. Thus we have to pay tribute to UP’s American founding presidents, Murray Bartlett, and Guy Potter Benton, and also to its first Filipino president, Ignacio Villamor. These gentlemen faced gargantuan challenges which are essentially what Emerlinda Roman faces today.
The UP needs a real peer review. It has invited its outstanding alums and academics from other Philippine universities to give their critique like what Ateneo’s president did. But we have to remember that what ails the UP in many ways ails other universities. That’s why I believe we have to take seriously the international university ratings where UP never got into the top 100. While the methodology of these surveys isn’t perfect, it reflects to a large extent how competitive the university is.
When Bartlett gave his lecture, the Republic was young and even when faced with the ravages of war, it had optimism. Will the celebrations of the centennial provide the optimism that matters, or is this ephemeral?
Also can the UP still have the sense and objectivity to invite an American professor to give it peer review?
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I’ve always been puzzled by the insistence in combining the objectives between producing world class research (imo, a prerequisite to our economic development) and preparing students for the job market. To me, these two worthwhile objectives are incompatible. Perhaps UP should concentrate on the former and leave the teaching students to other institutions. Limit the entry of students into those who are committed to producing knowledge and are willing to work on basic & applied research for a portion of their post-graduate career (along the lines of mandatory service that Jester has been proposing).
BTW (just to preempt DJB), ‘research’ should not taken to be limited to the hard sciences as we need to break new ground in the social sciences (and humanities) as well. Same goes with the Arts .
Also, when i say ‘limit’, i don’t necessarily mean a smaller student population. FAIK, it could be bigger, just that the aim of these students, once admitted, should be to produce knowledge not just imbibe it.
LOL:
Ateneo and La Salle DO collaborate on several research projects, including but not limited to their LIDAR (light detection and ranging) research, which shoots up laser beams to the atmosphere to measure things like pollution. Because DLSU is very near a coastal area that is more polluted and is on a much lower altitude, while ADMU is in a much clearer, higher altitude, they often compare notes on that research.
What the university need is fund, unless attractive salary and benefits ( to attract fresh talents and scholars) are offered to young and talented professionals with Phds to teach and conduct researches,the standing of the University in world ranking will fall further.
I think we have a glut of social science research, and in general we are pretty good at it. SWS and Pulse Asia are shining examples of soft scientific research–a term not meant to be a put down. Considering that pretty much all you need for that is paper, pencil and people, there’s plenty of opportunity to do scientific research in many fields. But “hard” scientific research requires a greater commitment to “failure”, especially expensive failure because there one is generally not trying to prove a point but trying to disprove one. Unfortunately doing scientific research in this century is not a loner’s task, but assumes a whole industrial-academic complex simply because all the easy answer and inventions were already found and made long ago. We are down to the really tough stuff now and it is only going to get harder. And with the stranglehold that superstition and dogma have, even the best colleges and universities (such as Ateneo and La Salle) really only do token science. Oh they teach the textbook stuff just fine, but there is not scientific culture as such. It has not had room to take root and grow where the weeds of old thinking, as well as the entertainment and mindless pursuits, are dominant.
What we need a cultural revolution to upend the status quo in the noosphere. It is time to stop being “respectful” of these mental bindings and to really get rowdy with anti-science forces. Science evolved from religion, like chemistry from alchemy, like astronomy from astrology. It’s time to kick the chimpanzees in the butt and get on with building a great human civilization.
i’d like to know more about this ‘abuse of academic freedom’ what does it mean and how is that even possible??
and i agree with cvj, the main role of a university is not to prepare students for the job market.
PEER REVIEW! I’ve emailed these A-holes many times about being peer reviewed, even one hotshot and influential economist. Baka nga mabuking na bobo.
Peer reviewed as in published. Nag agree din daw mga colleagues nila sa UP. He.
cvj:
“Perhaps UP should concentrate on the former and leave the teaching students to other institutions.”
Bartlett suggested precisely that. UP should focus on giving more advanced instruction in both undergrad and graduate levels. This is because UP is the apex of the public education system. What Bartlett failed to anticipate is the proliferation of state Us and city Us whose standards are sometimes worse that the private schools he referred to.
I know that La Salle and Ateneo do collaborate! But when the need is great, they can form a unified team like the Lateo football team in UP’s Latagaw Cup. (I still wonder why they didn’t call it Atesalle! :-) LOL!)
How about Ateneo loaning Norman Black to La Salle in a magnanimous gesture? :-) !
Just kidding!
As for improving faculty compensation, that is one of the most important priorities of Emer Roman. It can’t happen overnight but let’s give her some slack. News has it that she is really pushing it with the Budget department.
I agree with DJB that we have good social science research. However this research seems to have limited impact internationally. The exceptions are the studies done by economists. But I really don’t consider economics as a social science.
i always have the impression that generally, u.p. academe indoctrinates rather than teach. in the name of “academic freedom”, i think it wittingly or unwittingly fosters counterproductive ideologies, e.g., fanatic nationalism, distrust of government,to name a couple. education is not simply the development of the mind. it also must include strengthening of the soul
Blackshama, understood. The intent of my comment above was to express agreement with Bartlett’s recommendations.
Violations of academic freedom
First let’s agree on what academic freedom is. I suggest we limit ourselves to the usual definition and that is freedom to teach, freedom to determine who is qualified to teach, freedom to determine what to teach and freedom to determine whom to teach.
The US idea places limits. While professors can say what they want, when it comes to teaching in class they should not express opinions that may muddle the subject matter. They also have to clearly indicate that what they are saying are their own opinions.
In fact UP places limits to academic freedom. No professor may express religious opinion in class.This has been tested during Dodong Nemenzo’s term. Naturlich!
But this is extremely rare. The American idea of academic freedom specifically excludes teaching incompetence. I may be wrong but very few profs in UP have been booted out because of academic incompetence.
Almost everyone who has attended UP has known or heard of profs who 1) never show up for class, 2) don’t advise the students of their performance, 3) never returns marked exams, 4) use a dartboard for determining grades (this is so true!)
And many of these profs are given tenure! Once you have tenure then you can retire!
The European idea of academic freedom is more liberal save for the prohibition from expressing political opinion in class.
Most UP students are smart enough to consider their professors’ political opinion as opinion. The problem is when opinion becomes a basis for passing the course. A student complained to me that he had to pretend to accept Marxist-Leninism to pass a social science course. Forcing a theory on students is a gross violation of academic freedom.
Even if I teach evolution, I cannot force a student with contrary views to accept this a fact. I can only advise him/her to consider this as a hypothesis.
But again these situations are rare. Perhaps the main violations of academic freedom is in faculty incompetence in teaching.
Even today UP has no system wide grievance procedure for students when it comes to grades. No one would even dare propose this as this would create an “academic freedom” ruckus.
Compare this with universities abroad. There is a way for students to contest their marks. But the burden of proving so falls on the student.
So true. Not a dartboard but an umbrella. The prof. throws the classcards up in the air and catches it with an open umbrella. Whatever fall to the ground fail in the subject. hohoho.
the reason why I dropped one subject in my Doctorate in Public Ad in UP was because the professor handling the subject had the guts to tell me that my report was not current (civil service something). He was looking at his yellowed lecture notes which may have been prepared when i was stil in high school. my paper was mostly taken from an interview with a civil service official herself and research materials from libraries.
Hi The Ca t
I’ve heard of that umbrella prof too. Somebody thought the prof was a member of El Shaddai! But the darts prof was a teacher of mine. This avant garde artsy prof despite his reputation taught me to write and be unshackled in writing.
The profs who don’t show up for class are known as “racket scientists”. You need not be a rocket scientist to survive in UP.
But before non-alums think we are so disloyal and ungrateful to our alma mater, the fact is we love her so much as to sound disrespectful.
Also these tales won’t make it to the official history known as 100 Kwentong Peyups!
“And many of these profs are given tenure! Once you have tenure then you can retire!”
In fact, most of these professors are at their smartest while taking their masters or doctoral degrees. Their gray matter begins seeping out of their brains right after. Too lazy, they stop learning. Too unoriginal, they stop developing any immature ideas they might have thought up during their education. Worse, they’re too conceited to respect the intelligence and originality of their own students.
BrianB
In UP there have been changes to the tenure process but since colleges and departments don’t have that many people to review, we have a problem. In practice only the tenured profs in the department can recommend tenure. In some departments you may have just two people to decide. This could reduce objectivity. NUS for instance have a committee of at least 8 to recommend tenure.
Nonetheless there is an academic personnel committee in each college and department that reviews the dossier of applicants.
The process isn’t perfect. Controversial tenure decisions have been questioned in the university council. Of course the committee responsible will defend its decision on academic freedom grounds. One prominent academic (she is really tops in her field) declared in council that she was denied tenure for petty reasons and so she went to the Regents and she got it! She has written excellent books in the social sciences.
Please name names. This umbrella prof sounds interesting. Maybe he is an eccentric but has good academic output…
Prof Darts is a prominent lefty and has written abstruse (to me!) essays on Joma Sison’s rehash of Mao.
Prof Darts is a big fan of Sionil-Jose.
BTW, Prof Gutsy-Lady-who-got-her-tenure at the BOR boardroom is a scion of a prominent politician who is real nationalist.
Regarding funding, which I believe really would do miracles for the University, I think it would be useful to promote the commercial solution that previous president Emil Javier was backing. Just one big mall (or maybe two) on UP lands would probably do away with all sorts of fiscal angst associated with getting money from the government budget. Indeed, if they just managed all that intellectual talent and resource better the University could come alive with all sorts of research and development projects (funded by foreign and local businesses even).
But try to get that through those full metal jacketed leftist heads over there.
Common, name names, these are publicly funded posts. I want (and presumably taxpayers) to know who grades students using darts and umbrellas.
nashman
I’ll tell you the names when we FV people get to meet for kapihan.
Yikes! I forgot. I am up for tenure next year!
If I blog their names, you’ll lose your best hope for reform in UP! LOL :-)
why would your tenure be in peril eh wala naman kinalaman yun sa grading system ng colleagues mo??
just state is a matter of fact with no malice :D
Nashman
Alam mo naman na “balat sibuyas” yungibang faculty members! :-)
Do you know that all the beans are spilled out at UP’s only pub, the University Hotel?
Perhaps FV bloggers can meet there. However I can’t pay for all the beer! But when as mandated by the UP Charter that our sweldo will be as the same as they get in La Salle, pwede sagot ko.
Our prof in Spanish 11 or 12 made us tsing ‘Tierra Adorada’ complete with the rolling rr’s, ch and ts.
What’s so terribly wrong with UP?
Nothing much, except the alumni should return much more. Especially those doing well abroad, as in the U.S.
It’s payback time, guys!!!!!!!
Philman
You had it easy in Spanish. My Spanish 20 Senora Profesora required us to read Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere en Castellano. Not just that read-to-death Azotea chapter but the whole novel!
Anyway, I got a respectable 2.25 in her class. Looking back, I am very fortunate to have a direct descendant of Padre Jose Burgos teach me Spanish literature. I learned from her that Burgos had a child before he got ordained as a priest. Padre Burgos recognized the child. Ambeth Ocampo would tell the tale only in the 1990s.
The Senora (she was very Spanish) was fiercely loving of Patria Filipina! Also anyone who dozed in her 1:00 -2:30 class would get a heap of “urbanidad”. This was years before Bayani Fernando popularized the word.
The alumni and friends of UP in the DC, Maryland and Virginia are celebrating the centennial with a ball and fundraising for their beloved alma mater this October.
Corporate sponsorship is 5,000 dollars. Individual is 110.00. An auction is going to be held too.
They have been doing it yearly.I hoped they have classcards to auction. the one that’s been caught by the umbrella. *heh*
U.P. shpld also take into account that unike Western university students, Filipinos go to college at a younger and much more impressionable age. I actually prefer the culture of Ateneo and La Salle precisely for this reason. Damn, may pa advisor advisor pa at academic counseling. For freshmen ito ha.
“Almost everyone who has attended UP has known or heard of profs who 1) never show up for class, 2) don’t advise the students of their performance, 3) never returns marked exams, 4) use a dartboard for determining grades”
Aside from the dartboard and the umbrella, I remember another type I heard about during my time. The professor draws a big circle on the floor and drops the classcards like confetti. Those whose classcards fall inside the circle gets an uno and do not have to attend class.
Also there was a PI 100 male professor from CAL who prefers male students over female students. There was one time when he thought that his class was perfectly all male. But then a female student showed up. So the teacher gives the female student her classcard with a grade of uno “o ayan ha. wag ka na magpakita buong semester”.
Oh and about teachers never showing up for class, my Econ 151 teacher (itago nalang natin sa initials na BD…hehe obvious na kung sino) only showed up 3 times I think. Mostly it was his daughter (a grad student at that time) who would proctor our exams. We would just rely on our readings list.
I took up my masters somewhere else and noticed the big difference. But don’t get me wrong, I’m still proud to be a product of UP. =)
Jen
The econ teacher you are talking about is really “sikat”.
BTW about academic advising and counselling etc, UP has a very looooong way to go in improving student welfare. In overseas universities,you have academic advisors that cater to students of all backgrounds. For example there are advisors that specialize in giving guidance to mature age students.
Universities in the Philippines from my experience discriminate against mature age undergrads or even working students.
Blackshama,
Yup he is “sikat” hehe…
Oh and you are correct. I noticed too that advising was not taken seriously. Sure, we were assigned “advisors”. But they only go as far as approving our application to go overload on units during a certain semester. They didn’t really give us advise as to which subjects go together etc. Like, for example, we were given elective and cognate subjects. We were allowed to choose from any discipline, right? But then no one really advised us that if you were a political science major aiming for a career in diplomacy, it would’ve been prudent to spend all your cognates and electives on say, Foreign Languages, international studies etc. We had to figure that out ourselves.
During my time, there was no such thing as “mentoring”. Not so sure about now though. I haven’t been back there in ages. Though in the University I went to for my grad studies, I noticed the strong mentoring system.
Again, don’t get me wrong about UP. hehe…Still proud to be an Iska =)
jen,
advising? counselling? Wala noon niyan. If there was, I would have been advised not to enrol in free-sked classes (vs blocked sections) such that the Al-Qaeda Terror list would pale in comparison to my slate of selected profs. That sem, I only had 4 subjects (all terror profs): 2 @ 5 units, 1 @ 4 units, 1 @ 3 units. My grade was flat 1 for all four. 1 multiplied by the number of units, that is, heheh. I was DQ’d. From then on, it was teacher, teacher, teacher.
We learned that Spanish teachers with surnames with more than six letters are terroristas. Paco Arrespacochaga’s mom (RIP), San Buenaventura, and Villajuan are examples. You are safe with Uy, Perez, etc.
Macasero in Physics lives up to his name. Lagi kaming zero. Tupaz in Calculus is also avoided, only “Two Pass” each sem.
And so on.
maybe there really IS something wrong with the institution, if all these are true — and not just the students.
(i kid. heh heh.)
UP’s complacency and penchant for living on past glories are really what’s wrong!
But of course the university itself is the solution.
Now that’s there is a new charter, then there ain’t any more room for excuses.
Dapat kasi hindi na tinanggap ni BD = Ben Diokno? yung class kung marami siya iba commitments….:D
racket science?
??? ganun ba kamahal talent fee per class para gawing racket? :D
well, he is the economist, so he know if the payoff is worth it :D
@Thenashman: Ehehe…yun din ang running joke dati :D
@Tongue: At least pala nung time namin merong “advisors” hehe…yun nga lang, taga approven lang kung gusto mong mag-overload :D
@Blackshama: Racket science hehe….kahit saan atang university meron nun :D
@Jester: Hmmm…I still think it’s the students hehehe….:D
Ever heard of the “laude killers”? When these profs learn you are running for honors, patay kang bata ka!
There was a science major who was running for magna,tapos binigyan ng kwatro sa sem before graduation!
this is why the people who teach you should be separate from the people who score your exams.
In Australia, the lecturers don’t mark undergraduate exams. They have people (mainly PhD students) hired for that purpose.
…i think this is pretty much the case in the rest of the world. I have marked exams too for £150 for 7 papers….(naubos sa bisyo, pero honest racket)
¨What is the value of the University of the Philippines to your nation?¨
Today, the answer would be…NOTHING..
UP should be closed down…its nothing but a school that produces militants, communists, corrupt government officials, corrupt lawyers and corrupt politicians.
I would be honored to be part of a school that produces militants, communists, corrupt lawyers,politicians etc.
After all to be able be either one of them requires a capacity to think in several levels. :-)
blackshama,
then be proud to be part of those who have caused the suffering of the filipino people and the Philippines.
You are one of a kind… :) :)
The College of Science professors are really tops, but the college and the entire university needs more help in funding for research.
UP has always been my dream school. and it really saddens me to know these things because I have always believed in UP.
I dread the professors, those that you have mentioned, who evaluate using the umbrella etc. This is not the purpose of evaluation. You can never measure the performance of the student through that. This is truly unjust.
This is indeed a defiance to the real purpose of education for the educator themselves do not play their role well. I am currently studying in DLSU, taking up Educational Psychology, and I must say that the education that we have is far from what I have observed in your replies.
We have attendance policies not only for students but for professors as well. From what my professor has told me, deductions are given for those who often miss class. A limit of 4 alternative classes is also imposed. There are school personnels who are assigned to check the attendance of professors.
(I had very good professors who came from UP and they had concerns with regards to the UP system as well. Faculty absenteeism is rampant and the pay is not enough.)
Also, the promotion of professors is not just based on evaluation but on the number of local and international research publications as well. Additional privileges, monetary and others, are given to professors who are able to get their researches published in local journals, more so in international publications.
As for us, students, I must say that we have gone through a great deal of research. The professors are really keen on plagiarism. Actually, the University has come up with a new program to detect plagiarized works. Also, since we are employing a Transformative Pedagogy, most of the tasks are hands on. Unlike that of the traditional teacher-centered classroom, we are given the freedom to engage in different forms of learning.
My friends who are currently UP students have also raised that the everyday living of a UP student isn’t that demanding. The only times that they really exert effort is during exams. (My friends would literally not sleep to study for an exam just to get a passing mark. Note even a perfect mark, just passing.) A common joke among DLSU and UP students is their tests. “Ang test niyo, seatwork lang namin. ” Indeed I admit that it can be like that. But contrary to the easy lifestyle that my friends have shared to me, ours isn’t like that. We literally have hands on projects every week. (I’m not sure about the other courses, but in ours we do.)
I still believe in UP though. I just hope that an internal revamp can be done to alleviate the deteriorating quality of education that we are currently experiencing in the Philippines. With UP being the benchmark of the other universities, they should not only double, but triple their effort of addressing the concerns. If UP will continue to spiral down, what more the other institutions?