emerlindaroman

Alumni are committed to helping university

GAL ROMA HONG KONG

University of the Philippines President Emerlinda
Roman is leading a worldwide campaign to raise
funds to help modernise the university’s facilities,
improve faculty salaries and provide money for
research grants and scholarships.

We talked to President Roman in advance of her
visit to Hong Kong next month as part of her fund-
raising tour. Below are excerpts from the interview.

1) Many Filipinos, especially the overseas
workers, believe that a UP diploma is a prized
possession and a privilege. Does this hold true?

Yes, we believe the UP diploma remains respected
all over the world. A UP degree is accredited in
many countries abroad. Our alumni continue to
make a name not only nationally but internationally.
Parents continue to dream to have their children
admitted to UP. Last year alone, applicants to UP
increased from 66,000 in 2005 to 70,000.
When alumni give back to UP, they always
emphasise that their education in UP was a crucial
factor in being successful in life.

2) We have heard of faculty members leaving UP
to work for institutions that offer higher pay. What
is the university doing to help and to keep the
faculty members?

Incidentally, the highest paid faculty member of UP
– a full professor who has a PhD and who has
worked over 30 years in UP only gets P31,000 per
month or roughly US$550. Professors in Ateneo
and DLSU get three to five times more. If this is all
the professors get, you can imagine how much the
junior faculty members are getting.
What I admire most about our faculty is that they
have stayed. Many continue to be intrinsically
motivated – never mind if they don’t have flashy
cars or other possessions – they are content with
having a laboratory where they can do their work
quietly.

By raising funds for them and giving them grants
and awards – professorial chairs, faculty grants,
research grants, and by modernising facilities so
that their teaching and research facilities are at
least up-to-date and state-of-the-art, they will want
to stay and stick it out with UP.

3) What is being done to maintain, or improve,
the standards of teaching in UP?

The last Asiaweek survey placed UP No 48 among
Asian universities. But this last survey was done in
2000. Asiaweek has folded since then. We tried to
analyse the results and found out that most of the
questions hinged on financial resources.

Questions like median faculty salary, number of
students with e-mail accounts, student/computer
ratio, etc.

Because UP suffers from severe financial
constraints, there is really nothing much it could
have done if the questions hinged on financial
resources. This was in 2000.

Last year, Times Higher Education Supplement
(THES) published its ranking of universities
worldwide and UP placed No 299. De la Salle
placed second among Philippine universities,
Ateneo, third, and UST fourth at 500. Based on this
survey, UP still is recognised as the best in the
country.

But there is nothing much to be happy about this
ranking because UP needs to benchmark
internationally. We are at 299.

Among Asian universities, we ranked No 46. But
when we compared UP with other universities in
Asean, we found that we did better than some of
those who ranked higher than UP overall, in
recruiter rating and in citations per faculty. This
finding speaks well of the quality of our graduates
and the research track record of our faculty.

4) What is the target in your fund-raising
campaign?

Our target is P5 billion and the breakdown of the
sources is:
• National government: P2.5 billion
• UP projects (S&T parks, licenses on intellectual
property, development of other idle assets, etc: P1.
8 billion
• Alumni: P700 million

Uses of funds raised:
• Faculty retention and development: P2 billion
• Scholarships: P300 million
• Modernization: P2.65 billion
• Fund for artists and athletes: P50 million.

5) You are tapping the alumni community for
some of these projects. What response are you
getting?

They have enthusiastically responded to our call for
support. The alumni are committed to help UP in
any way because they believe in paying back to the
institution that has made a difference in their lives.