Navigating higher education to a better future

I was invited to keynote the First Regional Geographic Information System (GIS) Conference in Baguio City and am sharing with you some of the salient points discussed.

The First Regional GIS Conference was held on July 28 to 29, 2009 at the University of the Cordilleras Conference Center in Baguio City. The conference which coincides with the launching of the Commission on Higher Education’s (CHED) Technical Panel for Information Technology Education (TPITE) Faculty Immersion Project was attended by more than 150 persons coming from the academe, industry, CHED supervisors from Regions I, II, III, Cordillera Autonomous Region (CAR) and five and other non-government organizations.

The conference is a result of the collaboration effort spearheaded by CHED’s TPITE between Geodata System Technologies Inc. and University of the Cordilleras-College of Information and Computing Sciences with the theme, GIS: Technology Solutions for Community-Based Progress.

Relative to the topic of the conference among the key priority areas envisioned by Secretary Emmanuel Angeles for higher education are Faculty Development and institutionalizing industry-academe linkages. These two areas will addressed by the pilot program being launched. Faculty development has been and will always be a priority area of CHED. As of December 2008, a total of 1973 faculty members availed of the scholarships for Masters and Doctoral degrees in the general education courses. For the next five years, the target is to allot 4,000 slots for masters degree and 2,000 slots for doctoral degrees. Overall the target is that at least 70 percent of the total faculty population earn a master’s or doctorate by the year 2015.

With regards to industry-academe linkage programs, the different technical panels of the commission are revising existing policies, drawing out plans and projects so that industry-academe linkages are institutionalized not only in the academe but also in industry. In this regard, the TPITE is pursuing an advocacy program for different industry-academe linkage moda-lities of which this Faculty Immersion Project is one such methodology. The Faculty Immersion Project will be piloted in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao and if successful may lead to a National Program for Faculty Immersion in all regions of the country. Other modalities are also being looked into such as improving on-the-job training programs for students, jumpstarting research collaborations and extension services.

Faculty Immersion Project

The Faculty Immersion Project is an attempt to address the concern of industry on the “mismatch” between the competency requirements of industry and the graduates or product of higher education institutions (HEIs). Several studies as early as 1960s pointed out that the industry needs much more from the graduates. There are less qualified among the many graduates. The problem of mismatches are both qualitative and quantitative. The Technical Committee of CHED on industry-academe linkages has adopted a framework for addressing the talent pool requirement of industry. The four ingredients for employable information technology (IT) graduates are:

1. A curriculum that is industry-based;

2. Students who are exposed to real work/world experience before graduating

3. Faculty seasoned by real work/world experiences; and

4. Schools with appropriate infrastructure

Pilot project on faculty immersion

The GIS project between the University of Cordillera and Geodata System Technologies is the first pilot activity of the faculty immersion program. Their partnership focuses on business operations and to a certain degree on technical skills development in the area of geographical information system. The University of Cordillera faculty members would be involved in the preparation for the first Regional GIS Conference and would be trained by GIS staff on business operations such as telemarketing, logistics, project management and all aspects of the conference preparations. The university faculty would also be immersed in web development and mini GIS development activities. The system that would be developed by the faculty members would be validated and received by Geodata staff upon completion of the project before the end of August. Geodata would benefit from the project through an expanded marketing program for their company, a ready pool of trained individuals that they can tap for their future development activities and substantial incentives from government through limited financial support.

The output of this project would be substantial not only for the benefits it would provide to both institutions, but most especially for taking a bold step in partnering with CHED in piloting the Faculty Immersion Project. The small steps taken by these two pioneers might pave the way for bigger and better projects in the future. This is an encouraging development and I believe no matter how small these steps are, these are moving in the right direction and in unison with a clear purpose of navigating the Philippine Higher Education Highway to a better future. –Felizardo Y. Francisco, Manila Times 

opinion@manilatimes.net