Echaves: Vertical articulation

Monday, January 30, 2012

You can either know some things about A through Z, or know a whole lot of A or B or C or any preferred letter in the alphabet.

To illustrate, Juan can finish a college degree in BS Chemical Engineering, a master’s degree in educational management, and a doctoral degree in business administration.

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Rene, on the other hand, can obtain a BS in Electrical Engineering, a Master of Science in Applied Mathematics, and a Doctor of Engineering, with trainings via a fellowship grant in electrical and computer engineering.

Juan is the A through Z guy, a jack of all trades but master of none. Rene is the full-depth guy, the expert, thanks to his vertical articulation of undergraduate and graduate degrees.

The Commission on Higher Education’s (Ched) vertical articulation policy, enunciated as early as 1994 when Ched was created, is an approach to providing uniform formats across all degree-granting units in all campuses.

A second benefit is that faculty members need not worry about getting sufficient teaching loads. They can now cut across academic levels, freely sharing their specialization from undergraduate to master’s degree to doctoral degree programs.

Moreover, college deans can competently run their programs from undergraduate all through doctoral degrees. Under the Ched policy, faculty members must be given teaching loads based on their specializations.

With vertical articulation fully in place, the time should soon come when college and graduate school teachers are no longer simply addressed by the generic title of “Professor.” Rather, their expertise shall be annexed to their title; thus, “Professor of Educational Leadership,” “Professor of Music,” “Professor of Pure Mathematics,” and so on.

With the policy’s implementation in the better schools in Metro Manila and in the Visayas, the government’s academic institutions are well under way. At last week’s evaluation of applicants for professorial level, the Philippine Association of State Universities and Colleges (PASUC)’s panel of evaluators looked keenly into the applicants’ educational qualifications.

They did as well at the research outputs. Since it was NBC Cycle 5, the outputs had to be within the accepted three-year period from 2008 to 2011.

Research being inevitable to sustaining teaching and the demands of continued growth in one’s field, the minimum expectation is one published research per year. Within the three-year period, therefore, the applicant should have produced at least three researches.

And these aren’t simply for compliance. The research output must be related to the applicants’ specialization. If published in nationally-refereed journals, points obtained are higher. Premium points are highest for those published in internationally-refereed journals.

Applicants with longer years of teaching experience, especially if in their field of academic specialization, had no trouble notching the maximum points. And if their involvement in community extension programs was exemplary, their credentials, too, were a shoo-in.

For those not meeting the cut-off score, a consolation remains. The next three years should see them in perfect fit.