blackshama's commentary on Philippine issues

The University Council of UP Diliman has deliberated on its resolution regarding Noynoy Aquino's budget cuts to state universities. Some interesting pieces of information emerged from the "academic puffball" to borrow a Harvard phrase, discussion UP needs an allocation of at least 30 B pesos a year for at least a decade if it aims at least start catching up with top Asian universities like NUS in Singapore, Beida in China or Todai in Japan. UP proposed an 18 B budget this year. The University will require about 18-20 B per year if it is to maintain its present standard. A significant percentage of this budget goes to the operation of the university's teaching hospital PGH. PGH is not just an ordinary teaching hospital with a few beds, it is the largest tertiary hospital in the country that services a lot of indigent patients (and trains the best physicians and surgeons!) But UP's budget averaged only between 6 B every year and now it has been cut by 1.39 B. ...

The unpleasant reality of President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III's 1.39 billion peso budget cut for next year has finally dawned on faculty, staff and students of the University of the Philippines , the Philippines' national university as defined by law. Administration officials have warned university constituents that the university will likely not hire anyone for next academic year. This includes non-academic staff (clerks, records examiners, department secretaries etc), research staff and faculty. This also means that professors who will retire at the end of this year won't be replaced by young assistant professors, research projects and programs can't hire new graduate students to work in the labs, and no new clerical staff will be hired. And we haven't even touched upon the subject of salary adjustments and promotions, which are even more likely to be cut or put on hold! This bodes ill for the university (and a "baptism of fire" for the new...