Change in academic calendar favors ‘globalization’

About 1,200 students in the University of the Philippines Cebu campuses in Lahug and the South Road Properties will follow a new academic calendar starting this year, like counterparts in six other UP campuses and Ateneo de Manila. (PHOTO GRABBED FROM UP CEBU SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS)

Kezia Empleo, 18, is looking forward to a long summer ahead before she heads back to college classes in the University of the Philippines – Cebu.

“I’m thrilled at the thought of a four-month summer,” said the third year mass communication student.

Classes will start in August, not in June this year, a major shift in the academic calendar announced yesterday by two of the country’s top universities, UP and the Ateneo de Manila.

Their high school units, however, are not affected by the shift.

The change is meant to keep two of the country’s top universities  in sync with the academic calendar of  learning institutions in Asia, the United States and Europe which begin their school year between August and October.

With this breakthrough, other private Philippine institutions of higher learning will be looking at the pilot experience of UP and Ateneo to see if they should follow suit.

“I’ve read the reasons behind the shift and I think they’re pretty sensible,” said Empleo, one of over 1,000 undergraduate and post-graduate students enrolled in UP Cebu’s campus in Lahug and the South Road Properties in Cebu City.

Aside from synchronizing the academic calendar with those of universities abroad, holding classes in August would mean less disruption of classes with the onset of the rainy season in June, which brings downpours and causes street flooding.

Another plus is having a long December break for Christmas since the second semester would start in the third week of January.

Most universities in China, Korea, Japan, the European Union and the United States start classes between August and October.

Only the Philippines starts its academic calendar in June.

Synchronization would allow the faculty of UP and Ateneo to participate in many training programs and summer institutes in June and July.

APPROVED

The UP Board of Regents yesterday approved the proposal to move the opening of classes from June to August in all seven campuses except the flagship campus in Diliman, whose faculty and personnel have not yet agreed to the change.

The change, to be implemented on a pilot basis, will take effect starting the academic year 2014-2015.

This means campuses in Manila, Los Baños, Baguio, Visayas, Mindanao, and UP Cebu will open classes in August and will end in May.

The first semester will run from August to December, the second semester from January to May, and a short term from June to July.

The Diliman campus would be unaffected by the change, the university said in a statement. It said the flagship campus has not yet completed its consultations with its constituents.

The seven other campuses completed the consultations in the past year and have expressed their willingness to shift their academic calendar.

Under the new schedule, classes will start on August 3 and will end in the first week of December. After a long Christmas break, classes for the second semester will start in the third week of January until the second week of May.

GLOBALIZATION

“Well  it’s about time the UP school calendar will be the same as other ASEAN countries. Globalization na kasi tayo,” said 21-year-old Charles Arvin Young, a 4th year BS management student of UP Tacloban.

Young is one of 120 Tacloban students who had to cross-enroll in Cebu after supertyphoon Yolanda severely damaged the UP Tacloban campus.

He said it was good to have parallel calendars with international schools.

“We can encourage more student exchange programs. Walang masama sa pagbabago, to be more competitive (It’s not bad to have change in order to be more competitive),” he said. The college senior,  who is finishing his last year in UP Cebu, said the real challenge is to keep high university standards in order to keep the students and faculty “the best from the rest.”

“I don’t really care (about the calendar) as long as the UP system improves as a whole, lowers tuition levels, provide better facilities, etc. The government should invest more in education, especially  UP and other public schools,” he said.

The changes will likely be discussed today during a regular semestral assembly on its campus in UP Cebu where a question-and-answer session is held between university administration and students.

In Quezon City, a forum will be held on February 10 to discuss the shift in the academic calendar, according to a statement issued by UP President Alfredo Pascual.

“The decision to shift the academic calendar is part of the continuing efforts of UP to develop into a regional and global university and to maximize the opportunities offered by ASEAN integration and global educational partnerships,” Pascual said yesterday.

The UP Integrated School and other UP high school units will still observe the old June to March schedule.

ATENEO

In a post on its Facebook page, Ateneo said the Board of Trustees approved the shift, which would take effect during the academic year 2015-2016, in the Loyola Schools and the Professional Schools.

It was decided during a February 5 meeting that the Ateneo Grade School and High School will follow the old academic calendar of June to March.

Ateneo university president Jose Ramon Villarin said the shift was part of the university’s “response to the increasingly globalized world.”

The decision was borne out of eight months of internal study and consultations with stakeholders, Ateneo said in a statement.

“Ateneo needs to ensure that our graduates develop a global outlook and global competencies so that they can navigate a more complex, interconnected world and contribute towards resolving global concerns,” Villarin said.

The shift will align Ateneo’s schedule with more than 80 percent of its current university partners overseas and more than 70 percent of all universities around the world.

“This will facilitate mobility among students and faculty members and collaborative academic programs and research,” the statement read.

Villarin conceded that some issues would still have to be worked out, such as the timing of the licensure exams in law, medicine and electronics engineering.

“We are dedicating one and a half years to work through these concerns thoroughly and systematically. We are confident that we will be ready by 2015,” the official added.