Why we did not make it

None of the top four universities in the country was included in the top 300 Asian universities in the most recent QS World University Rankings.  Concerned citizens, whether parents, students and even lawmakers, point out that the results prove the degradation of the education system in the country.

According to a QS ranking advisory board member, the annual ranking “gives a clear illustration of the link between investments and results in higher education.” The Aquino administration recently decreased the budget of the premier state university of the country, the University of the Philippines (UP), by P1.39 billion.

Students, faculty members and alumni from state universities, and partylist groups blame the subsidy cut for the diminishing quality of education in the country and the lower rankings.

Without the budget for capital outlay, the acquisition of additional and needed facilities such as laboratories, classrooms and technological support would be impossible. Without such facilities, students will have a difficult time mastering their subjects, which then affects their academic performance.

Funding is an important aspect in the operations of any educational institution. It is what drives capital accumulation, research and the actual provision of educational service, through wages. Whether the funding is from the tuition fees paid by the school’s students or donations from alumni, among others, without it, any institution cannot operate properly.

In DLSU, although we are not affected by the subsidy cut, our tuition fee has been allotted to the increasing costs of utilities and maintenance costs. I am so sure that most of the Lasallians have bantered on the thought that our University is labeled as world-class, but our facilities may not reflect our being at par with the rest of the world. If a warning suddenly appears on the white screen, saying that the mounted projector should be shut off because its filters need cleaning, at least one student, if not the professor, would complain about the substandard facilities found in a supposedly world-class university.

One of the rationales behind the implementation of the Rationalized Classroom Utilization (RCU) last term is to decrease the University’s utilities costs. It was reaffirmed by the administration during the many multi-sectoral forums that discussed the RCU implementation that it will be less costly for DLSU to hold its classes for six days than the former four-day schedule.

Along with the intention to address the congestion in the University, with the increasing student population, the RCU came with more negative trade-offs that threaten to affect the performance of Lasallians and the productivity level of all DLSU employees.

The six-day schedule and a trimestral system simply do not go well with each other.  One day, the current schedule, especially for the freshmen, will finally take a toll on their academic performance and worse, on their health. The retention rate of the students may decline with the fast-tracked and accelerated curriculum schedule; even the professors will feel the effects of the RCU.

The administration may have made bad decisions in the past, but I believe that such bad policies were not implemented just because of their whims and caprices. All University policies are well-researched even before they are actually put into words. All the sectors’ opinions and inputs are are asked beforehand. All implemented schemes and policies are also subject to assessment, like the RCU scheme. It is just like any economic policy, it takes time before the actual advantages and disadvantages of a policy are revealed, the lag effect or graphically, the J-curve.

If it is not entirely the administration’s fault, then why was DLSU removed from last year’s group ranking of the top 451-500 universities to 551-600 this year? Maybe we could blame the faculty, they are the ones teaching us, they are the living repositories of knowledge in the University.

DLSU boasts of well-seasoned professors such as Dr. Tereso Tullao Jr. (one of my personal favorites), Dr. Girard Tan, Dr. Eric Batalla and many more. Sadly, the older and more experienced professors are about to retire. This is why there is an influx of younger professors teaching anything from general subjects, course majors to electives. The younger brood may have the credentials to become a faculty member – I know people my age who have finished their Masters degree and are already teaching in the University – but the students might just get the shorter end of the stick. The younger professors still lack in experience although they might be more agile and approachable than older professors. The students might not be able to maximize the learnings they have acquired from such professors. Is the University doing something to make the well-seasoned professors stay? How does the University discipline lazy faculty members?

Maybe the administration and faculty have their own faults on why the education system in the country has diminished, but to buffer the counter-productivity, the students should also do their part. The persistent problems of congestion, a younger faculty  pool and Saturday classes should not become the scapegoat for the substandard and lax performance of Lasallians today.

We should make the most out of our experiences. Why rant about how a professor cannot articulate himself properly when he has finished a doctorate degree on his or her field of specialization, and has accomplished a laundry list of formidable award-winning research outputs that have received international recognition? He will not be able to acquire that status if he is not good at something. Learning should extend even outside the classroom. If the student was not able to absorb the topic discussed in class, he should at least maximize the professor’s consultation hours, as arranged during the class’s first day.

Books, instead of becoming paperweights, should be used as sources of information. More importantly, the issue lies on the perspective of students on education. Education is something students have to work hard for. In other words, students have a part to play. They cannot just ask a professor any question when they did not read the book or the assigned readings.

It comes as to no surprise that some professors are disheartened, and prefer to retire early, if not choose to teach only in the graduate school. In many ways, this comes as a cost to students because those professors have specializations, which the students might benefit a lot from.

It is immature for students to think that they do not deserve anything less from their professors since their tuition fees pay for the faculty’s salaries, or even for the University’s operational expenses. Students feel like they are getting the shorter end of the stick because they have to pay, but in reality, professors pay a greater price because they have opportunity costs in teaching.

Many professors have offers to work in the corporate world, but choose to teach for a lower salary. Some do it out of passion, but every peso we spend for taking an extensively published professor’s class is not as large as the amount he or she loses for having to teach students.

The product of any educational institution is their students. Whatever they show to other people – their skills and intelligence – are reflections of where the student studied. Amidst the lower ranking received, a Lasallian education remains a privilege—one that must be earned by the students themselves.