Anyare, Peyups?

The world has turned upside down. Ateneo is now the top local university by academic standing and UP, perennial cellar dweller at the UAAP basketball tournament, is now champion.

UP has been ranked as the top school in the Philippines since it was first included in the Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings list in 2017. UP dropped to second, a poor second to Ateneo in the current rankings.

Alumni of the state university are in a state of shock. I get asked, anyare? The UP ego cannot take playing No. 2 to Ateneo, I guess.

Poor Danny Concepcion, UP president, who is being blamed for this decline in UP’s academic standing. The tragedy happened under his watch. Folks are waiting for another apology from DaniCon, the first being after he attended a Kabataang Barangay reunion at UP’s Bahay ng Alumni with Imee Marcos.

Ateneo was ranked 351- 400 among the top universities in the world, while UP was at 801-1000, De La Salle University (DLSU) at 1201-1500, and Mapua University at 1501+.

Actually, the issue is why our universities are ranked this low. The National University of Singapore is at No. 19 and has been among the world’s top universities for years. It is No. 3 in Asia.

I was wondering if there is a correlation between economic progress and the ranking of universities in a country. Chinese universities are tops in Asia, and so are other universities in Singapore and Hong Kong.

Actually, it is even a wonder UP has been ranked as highly as it had been through the years. It gets little support by way of research grants and faculty development. Only through the sheer commitment of its academic staff that UP has been able to get some recognition internationally.

Over the last few years, since DaniCon took over, the university’s academic community had been protesting what it called the politicized appointment of college deans.

But what did they expect? DaniCon is not the dyed-in-the-wool UP academic to begin with. He is a lawyer who was once an associate commissioner at the Securities and Exchange Commission. He was Dean of the UP College of Law, but that’s probably not enough time spent to imbibe the UP culture of academic excellence.

Early in his watch, the University Council of UP Diliman (UPD) called on DaniCon and the Board of Regents (BOR) to respect and uphold the authority and judgement of the University Council and its constituent faculty on all academic matters, including the appointment of college deans.

The University Council pointed out that “a dean is, first and foremost, an academic leader, if not first among equals, then, at the very least, a model of honor and excellence in the discipline. As qualification and expectation, academic leadership preempts other skills such as being a good fundraiser or able administrator…”

A UP Dean, the UP academics declared, is mandated to lead in setting academic standards and initiating innovations in teaching, research, and faculty development among others.

The actions and decisions of the UP president and BOR, the University Council said, “give the unfortunate impression that political connections carry inordinate weight in the appointment of a dean and that requirements of scholarship and professional recognition may be waved aside.”

I imagine the demoralization of UP academics under the administration of DaniCon is a major factor why UP’s performance in the Times university ratings has gone considerably down.

If we want UP to be No. 1  again over other local universities, and perhaps even start trying to be among the ranks of the region’s top universities, many things have to happen.

First, UP’s next president should be someone the UP academic community can respect. Think along the lines of OD Corpuz, Noel Soriano, Dodong Nemenzo and Emil Javier among others. All of them have devoted a lot of time earning their academic credentials first.

If it is going to be a politician, think along the lines of Ed Angara who fully supported the academic community and protected the university from political incursions.

The supposed advantage of DaniCon is his political connections. He was president of the Kabataang Barangay Federation of Metro Manila from 1976 to 1978. He was elected as the youth sector representative in the Interim Batasang Pambansa from 1978 to 1984. He is reputed to be close to Imee Marcos.

But his political savvy failed to protect UP’s budget, which was cut by DBM in the budget proposal pending in Congress. DBM said UP had been underspending its budget through the years anyway. That’s a failure of administration for which DaniCon is responsible.

The other problem is a lack of appreciation by the national leadership of the proper role of a university in a nation’s development. Small minds in Congress must realize universities perform the function as centers of knowledge, skills, and experience through research, learning, and teaching.

Unfortunately, our leaders think of universities as diploma mills that can graduate many students and never mind the quality of education received. That’s why we cannot be internationally competitive at the highest levels. That’s also why some of UP’s best scholars choose to remain abroad after earning their graduate degrees.

Professor Eric Thomas, president, ‘Universities UK’, vice-chancellor, University of Bristol describes what a university is:

“The main functions of higher education and universities are predominantly two-fold. One is as educational establishments and the second as generators of knowledge and technology.

“As educational establishments, their function is to provide able, self-directed learners that are independent and confident, and will go out into society and give to society through leadership or through civic duties.

“As knowledge generators, they are research institutions there to provide new knowledge, to change paradigms, to aid society in its development and in meeting new challenges as they come along.”

Those are the ideals our universities should be aiming for, specially our premier state university. Hopefully, Junior will respect UP as much as his father did and appoint a new president who is acceptable to the academic community.

As for UP, let us hope the UP MBT will deliver the championship again. Kawawa naman tayo kung hindi. Yun na lang ang inaasahan.

Hay naku… UP naming mahal!!!

Boo Chanco’s email address is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco.Follow me on twitter @boochanco.