UP History in the Making this September
This September, UP historical events will take place.
From September 13 to 15, the University of the Philippines will hold three milestone events in Davao City, Davao del Sur, Mindanao, with all events marking firsts in the history of not just UP but the region as well. These include: a pioneering summit that puts the development of the Bangsamoro front and center in the national University’s strategic initiatives; the investiture ceremony for the first Mindanawan UP President, to be held for the first time on the UP Mindanao campus; and finally, the first UP-initiated summit gathering leaders of state universities and colleges from across the country with the aim of boosting engagement and partnerships in the Philippine higher education sector.
With these series of high profile events, the University sets itself squarely upon the path to become the national university it is meant to be, a public service university “doing what we can for others” as “Iskolar Para sa Bayan”, as UP President Angelo A. Jimenez said in his address to the UP Diliman Class of 2023. A national university serving the Filipino people, focusing specially on the country’s most underrepresented and marginalized communities.
The UP-Bangsamoro Development Program Summit Consultation
Date: September 13
Time: 1:00-5:00 PM
Venue: Dusit Thani Residences Davao
Mindanao has been envisioned as the country’s agri-industrial center, given its rich natural, economic and human development resources, its potentials, and its people’s aspirations. The island is key to achieving the Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028’s overall objective of “economic transformation for a prosperous, inclusive and resilient society”, aligned with Ambisyon Natin 2040 and the country’s commitment to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
However, growth and development in Mindanao has remained uneven, hampered by such issues as poverty, social conflicts, criminality and social unrest. The Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), in particular, has seen a significant drop, among families, in poverty incidence, from 52.6% in 2018 to 29.95 in 2021; but it still ranks among the lowest in the Human Development Index list of Philippine regions and provinces.
In keeping with its mandate under Republic Act No. 9500 to take the lead in higher education and public service and to relate its activities to the needs and aspirations of all Filipinos, the University of the Philippines will host the UP-Bangsamoro Development Program Summit Consultation to discuss opportunities for collaboration aiming to improve the socio-economic conditions of the Bangsamoro and Mindanao. This will be held on Sept. 13, 2023, 1:00 PM at the Dusit Thani Residence Davao.
These include the creation of a UP-Bangsamoro Development Program, which would be the first of its kind between the University, the BARMM government and local government units, and development NGOs and SUCs in the region. The program is envisioned to serve as an avenue of convergence between UP and the Bangsamoro for co-creating opportunities and collaborative action to strengthen human capital and improve socio-economic conditions of the Bangsamoro.
According to its concept note, the UP-Bangsamoro Development Program’s major aims would include:
- providing a unified, inclusive, and effective way of collaboration between UP and BARMM stakeholders in crafting and delivering evidence-based development policies, plans, and programs;
- increasing partnership with development NGOs in BARMM to promote and improve socio-economic conditions in communities;
- promoting shared expertise and resources between UP and BARMM State Universities and Colleges to provide quality education;
- and promoting creative industries, and enhancing human capital.
Slated to attend the summit are: BARMM Chief Minister Ahod Ebrahim, Al Haj; officials and representatives of various ministries and committees of the Bangsamoro Parliament; and LGUs, NGOs, and state universities and colleges (SUCs) in the region. A memorandum of understanding between the University and the BTA will also be presented by the UP to its partners in the transition authority.
Panaad at Kabilin: Pagtatalaga kay Kgg. Angelo A. Jimenez bilang ika-22 Pangulo ng Unibersidad ng Pilipinas
[Investiture of Atty. Angelo A. Jimenez as 22nd President of the University of the Philippines]
Date: September 14, 2023
Time: 9:00 AM
Venue: UP Mindanao Atrium, Tugbok, Davao City, Davao del Sur
“The hallmark of UP in the next six years will be service to the nation. Service to the nation is constitutive of who we are and what we do. Together, we will work towards a UP that is more engaged with the nation,” Atty. Angelo A. Jimenez said in his speech on Feb. 10, when he accepted the position and authority of leading the University as its 22nd President.
Born and raised in the City of Butuan, Agusan del Norte, Jimenez is the first Mindanawan and the first Manobo, honored and named as “Datu Mankalagan” or “Great Spirit” in 2007, to become UP President. To mark the symbolic significance of his rise to become the head of UP as the national university, his formal investiture as the 22nd UP President will be held at the Atrium of UP Mindanao, in Tugbok, Davao City, on Sept. 14 at 9:00 AM.
For Jimenez, being a son of the South is integral to his UP Presidency. “It was when I got elected that people reminded me that I’m the first UP President who came from Mindanao; and I was amazed, actually surprised, maybe a little bit shocked,” he said in an interview he did for the UP Forum. “I never realized that my election would resonate in Mindanao. Finally, one of their own has become a UP President. I wanted to, in my own little way, remind UP where its ultimate loyalty belongs; and, I couldn’t imagine a more marginalized community than our IPs in the mountains where there has been an ongoing conflict and there still is right now.”
Jimenez is a labor lawyer and a respected authority on global worker migration. His work has contributed to the establishment of the country’s new Department of Migrant Workers, as well as to the labor migration regulatory framework in countries in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. A former Deputy Administrator of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, he served as Labor Attache in Japan, Kuwait, and Iraq, and was awarded Presidential citations for his work in ensuring the safety of Filipino workers during the Israel-Lebanon conflict, including the rescue of a Filipino hostage held in Iraq.
With his extensive background in labor migration, Jimenez has been tapped as an expert lecturer by the UP Centre International de Formation des Autorités et Leaders or International Training Center for Authorities and Leaders Philippines. He has also written papers for organizations such as the International Organization for Migration Philippines and the Blas Ople Policy Center He is a regular lecturer on Philippine overseas labor laws at the UP Law Center’s Mandatory Continuing Legal Education program.
Jimenez served on the UP Board of Regents twice, first as a Student Regent in 1992, when he was also elected Chair of the University Student Council of UP Diliman; and again when he was appointed Regent by former President Rodrigo R. Duterte in 2016, during which Jimenez also served concurrently as Trustee of the UP Foundation, Inc.
He obtained both his Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Arts (Sociology) degrees from UP Diliman. As a law student at UP Diliman, he was Associate Editor of the Philippine Collegian and President of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines. He went on to earn his Master in Public Management degree from the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. He was also a Lee Kuan Yew Fellow at the Harvard School of Government.
Read more about his profile here
Taking inspiration from and being guided by his Mindanawan and indigenous roots, Jimenez aims to highlight the view from the margins and bring a unique perspective on how UP can further contribute to national development. Championing kindness in the University, and setting public service as a pillar of his vision and strategic initiatives for UP, his administration plans to widen access to UP and UP-quality education through various courses, modes, and platforms, as well as to strengthen partnerships with Philippine SUCs. These partnerships are intended to advance higher education in the country through shared knowledge and expertise.
UP Mindanao, which is hosting an investiture ceremony for the UP President for the first time, is the sixth constituent university under the UP System, and the only UP constituent university in Mindanao with the primary mandate to provide equitable access to quality UP education to Mindanawans. It offers academic programs in the fields of the humanities, architecture, mathematics, food, economics, social, natural, and computing sciences. As a graduate university, it offer a PhD by Research, and graduate degrees in management, food science, urban and regional planning, and sports science. Its development agenda focuses on opening additional academic programs and new Colleges in Human Kinetics, Medicine, and Engineering, to support Mindanao sports, health, technological, and bio-cultural diversity initiatives. UP Mindanao is headed by Chancellor Lyre Anni E. Murao. (For more news on UP Mindanao, visit their Facebook page)
Pagtutulay, Pagtutuloy: 1st UP-SUC Summit
Strengthening Partnerships in Philippine Public Higher Education
Date: September 15, 2023
Time: 8:00 AM
Venue: Dusit Thani Grand Ballroom Davao
Stronger together. This belief in stronger partnerships within the Philippine higher education sector is what drives “Pagtutulay, Pagtutuloy: The 1st UP-SUC Summit on Excellence and Equity in Public Higher Education”, which will be held on September 15 at Dusit Thani Grand Ballroom, Davao City, a day after UP President Jimenez’ investiture in UP Mindanao. This UP-SUC Summit will convene leaders of Philippine SUCs, Commission on Higher Education (CHED) officials, and interested stakeholders from Congress and private higher education institutions.
It was Jimenez’s cognizance of inter-SUC engagement and partnerships as imperatives for knowledge co-creation, innovation, research, and public service towards national development that gave rise to the conduct of the summit. This comes with the realization that when the common and unique strengths of SUCs are put together in the spirit of cooperation, they can make higher education an even more formidable force in building the Filipino nation.
The summit is envisioned to inspire engagement in transdisciplinary academic, research, and public service programs through co-designed projects. It is an opportunity for SUCs to link up and be active co-producers in knowledge-building that will ultimately translate into the service of communities and the country.
“Pagtutulay, Pagtutuloy” is a platform for this network of SUCs to: (1) discuss strategies for overcoming challenges in establishing and maintaining linkages between universities; (2) share best practices and innovative approaches in academic, research, and public service collaboration; (3) identify opportunities for graduate education, student and faculty exchange, joint research, and sharing of educational resources and other academic and research activities; and (4) establish a framework for sustainable and effective collaboration between UP, CHED, and other SUCs by the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding that outlines the key points of agreement among the participants.
The summit includes the launch of four UP programs relevant to inter-SUC engagement: the UP Data Commons; Philippines Massive Open Online Courses (PHMOOCs); TVUP programs; and the UP Archipelagic and Ocean Virtual University (UPAOVU). It is expected to close with the signing of the Mindanao Declaration on Excellence and Equity in Public Higher Education.
The UP Data Commons, inaugurated in 2021, is a world class high performance computing and storage facility, that includes the necessary hardware and software resources, at the UP Diliman College of Science. Its launch during the summit opens this UP resource to SUC partnerships in pursuit of innovative research, such as those on artificial intelligence and big data. It has three petabytes of storage, with plans to increase it to seven, and connectivity speeds that allow data transfer in milliseconds.
PHMOOCs is a new platform designed to foster universal access to quality education, promote lifeline learning, and enhance collaboration among higher education institutions in the country. It promotes knowledge sharing, collaborative course development and implementation, research partnerships, and teaching methods and technology use innovations. It is envisioned to widen education opportunities by leveraging technology to provide accessible, inclusive, and high-quality courses, and to address the diverse needs of learners, wherever they may be. The UP Open University, which began offering MOOCS in 2013, leads this initiative, that also aims to link up with MOOCs platforms in other countries.
TVUP, the UP-owned and operated internet television network, expanded its reach through Cignal TV Channel 101 in 2022. Its debut in “Pagtutulay, Pagtutuloy” intensifies its commitment to the production of open educational resources in the Philippines by inviting collaborations in knowledge production through the creation of inter-university programs. TVUP will eventually evolve to become a training facility for performance and production.
The UPAOVU represents the country’s aspiration of becoming an economically prosperous and environmentally sustainable archipelagic nation. Spurred by the development of the blue economy that ties up with archipelagic and ocean studies work done by UP faculty and researchers over many decades, the UPAOVU will become the hub of research and teaching that brings together the strengths of various SUCs in marine biology, oceanography, fisheries, and other allied disciplines. The end goal is to become invaluable resources, partners, and enablers of the blue economy, all leading in the formulation of policies and programs that are coherent, inclusive, and sustainable.
Service as the Hallmark of UP
With these three landmark events, the UP System under President Jimenez officially launches its strategic platform for the next six years. This strategic plan follows three themes: “Public Service for the Common Good”; “Teaching, Research, and Innovation for Future-ready Citizens”; and “University Governance and Infrastructure with Transparency and Accountability”. Overarching all of these is the vision of UP as: “A national university dedicated to the formation of good citizens and leaders, engaged in knowledge co-creation towards a just, equitable, and progressive society,” guided by the principle of “Honor and Excellence in the Service of the Nation”.
For this week in September, and for the next six years and beyond, service to the nation will truly be the hallmark of UP.
