Toward globalization in education

By Johanne Margarette R. Macob

A FEW days ago, an international higher education information provider- Quacquarelli Symonds (QS)- made public its latest ranking of top 300 Asian universities.

The country’s premiere state university, University of the Philippines (UP) remains as the country’s top university and moved four notches up from no. 67 in 2013 to no. 63 in 2014.

Other Philippine universities in the 300 are Ateneo De Manila University (no. 115), University of Santo Tomas (141), De La Salle University (no.151-160), Ateneo de Davao University (no. 251-300).

National University of Singapore (NUS), for the first time since QS started ranking in 2009, bagged the tag “top Asian university” this year.

A bit of research online provided me with the information that NUS along with Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore are being subsidized with S$16.1 billion by the national government. This fund aims to improve the institutions’ academic performance particularly in the areas of science, technology and innovation.

I note that the four Philippine universities included in this year’s QS list of top Asian schools have shifted their academic calendar- from June-to-March to August/September-to-May- to synchronize it with other universities in Southeast Asia. As a graduate student at UP open university, I was initially disappointed with this change as I was excited to finish sooner. However, after talking to school execs and reading some articles, I realized the significance of this school calendar shift particularly to internationalization. This shift in calendar will enable more foreign students to enroll in any university in Asia, that includes Filipinos. Consequently, there would likely be an expanded sharing of literatures and other studies necessary to equip students better.

With the new school calendar, Philippine universities are deemed to do better in global rankings. It’d be good for other universities including those in provinces to consider doing the same. Students and even faculty mobility are very much needed to improve the quality of our education, in order to produce more globally competitive products. We, Filipinos, are naturally smart, but we can do better. We just need to further this intelligence and think with a global perspective.

Here’s to internationalization of education!

Back to Homepage

 

Share your Comments or Reactions

comments

Powered by Facebook Comments