There are opportunities for research and extension programs that are available to Philippine universities at the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and other government agencies.
It is hoped that such programs, which are part of the Philippine government’s response to the challenges of ASEAN integration and world trends, will improve the track records of the vast majority of the faculties of Philippine universities in the academic areas of research and extension.
Research should ideally be followed by Extension. Extension is practical application of Research results. It is government policy to disseminate the results of research to improve the lives of people by increasing their incomes and thereby, reduce poverty. And government now provides financial support of research and extension.
At this time, it can be said that only four university systems in the Manila area are widely acknowledged for significant research.
Their research output has been recognized as indicators of academic excellence in the ASEAN region and in the world.
One characteristic of these universities is that they have the numbers. They have many researchers working together in any particular academic department.
This is one lesson for other universities with fewer research/extension workers to learn and adapt. They need to collaborate with other like-minded institutions engaged in similar fields of inquiry.
The state of affairs mentioned above hopefully will not persist for a long time, if administrators and the faculties of universities will decide to strengthen their research and extension programs now, and to provide adequate incentives for scholarly activities.
There are a number of universities outside of the Manila area that have the potentials to become excellent institutions, if their faculties are trained and oriented to research and extension, and would take advantage of the programs of CHED and other agencies such as the Department of Science & Technology, the Department of Health, etc.
Some universities in the Philippines, particularly the private ones, stick to the traditional values and criteria on which they were founded, and tend to reject the international criteria now in use for judging academic excellence.
In my view, this is short-sighted, as there is really no cogent reason to disregard new developments in academe.
Many universities abroad known for academic excellence for some time now have adopted new criteria for excellence to maintain or enhance their academic status.
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Author’s email: suakcrem@yahoo.com
