In my first meeting of a graduate class in research, I informed my students that the final output of the course is a capsule research proposal, which they can later develop into a full blown thesis proposal.
Instantly, I saw a variety of reactions–from being excited to being scared. The latter reflects the timidity of some students about research and scholarly publication.
The scenario suggests that the culture of research in Philippine higher education institutions has not yet fully matured. Reality speaks that in the Philippines, both in public and private colleges and universities, having a significant number of faculty members engaged in research and publication is far below what is ideal.
Published articles per faculty and citations per article constitute 30 percent of the total score in the ranking of top universities done by Quacquarelli Symonds Intelligence Unit, an international research organization.
In its 2012 ranking, only five Philippine universities (UP Diliman, Ateneo de Manila, De La Salle University, University of Sto. Tomas, and University of Southeastern Philippines in Davao City) landed in the top 300 universities in Asia, but their ranks had unfortunately dropped compared to 2011.
The low rate of scholarly publication in the country was discussed during the 9th general membership assembly of the National Research Council of the Philippines-Visayas Regional Cluster on June 21-22 held at the Visayas State University in Baybay, Leyte, where I served as reactor to a paper by Nino Antonio Villalino and Editha Cagasan on “to publish or to perish”. The paper particularly addressed the question why a few could publish but several others do not or cannot.
The paper argues that having a research environment where administrative support is present — manifested by internal grants, incentives, facilities, and others; having faculty members with good academic preparation on and actual exposure to research; having senior researchers and colleagues who encourage and mentor budding researchers; and having faculty who believe on the relevance of research and are willing to learn the craft, are conditions for a research culture to flourish.
SU Prof. Gina Fontejon-Bonior did a similar study titled The State of Research and Publication of Silliman University College Faculty (2011). She identified professional growth and credibility, incentives for publication, invitations by colleagues to a research project, and accreditation as reasons of Silliman faculty members to be actively engaged in research and publication.
But the majority of those who had never tried engaging in research had said they were discouraged by the teaching overload, domestic tasks, lack of awareness of research opportunities, non-engagement of administrators and colleagues in research, and poor writing skills.
The clamor of excessive teaching overload may have justified the inability of some to research and to publish, but there are also exceptional cases of those who were busy with teaching and administrative tasks but were still able to publish a lot.
So despite the fact that internal research funds are made available, workshops in research proposal and manuscript writing are offered, promotion in rank and increased pay are assured together with other incentives, there are still reasons after reasons why only a minority of the faculty do and can publish in scholarly journals.
As practiced, scholarly publication is a requirement for tenureship in some Philippine universities, while others need it only for promotion in rank.
Thus, the “publish or perish” policy which is a practice of American universities is unfortunately not the norm in higher education institutions in the Philippines.
A participant in the NRCP assembly from a state university shared that a new faculty is expected to publish within five years to be tenured; failure to comply means termination.
Meanwhile, another participant from a private university said that a new faculty is given regular status after three years of satisfactory teaching performance. The faculty is qualified for promotion to an assistant professor status, but not to associate or full professor until the required number of publications is met.
To freeze one’s promotion appears as a sanction, but which doesn’t seem to be as painful as to “perish” .
It is sad to note, however, that some small private colleges, because of the lack of funds and the necessary infrastructure for institutionalizing its research program, have difficulty meeting the research and publication expectations set by the Commission on Higher Education.
No sanction can also be imposed by a small private college to its faculty who refuses to publish because it cannot likewise provide an encouraging research environment.
The establishment of the CHED Zonal Research Centers in the past to mentor small colleges, and now, the Philippine Higher Education Research Network (where Silliman is a member), and the Higher Education Regional Research Centers as well as the provision of research funds and infrastructure may hopefully help in the escalation of a prolific research culture in Philippine higher education institutions.
But against all odds, it is still the positive attitude toward research and scholarly publication that matters most. And this has to be nurtured starting in the early years of the academic life of every student to instill sustainably that rich culture of research.
