By Danny O. Calleja
LEGAZPI CITY, Aug. 29 (PNA) – The Bicol University (BU), the region’s premier higher education institution with main campuses here, is now among the Science Education Consortium (SEC) under Accelerated Science and Technology Human Resources Development Program (ASTHRDP) of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).
This means that graduating high school students in Bicol who will be admitted next school year to the graduate scholarship being provided by the DOST through its Science Education Institute (SEI) can avail of the educational grant without going out of the region.
DOST Regional Director Tomas Briñas on Friday here said BU’s entry to the ASTHRDP-SEC makes it among the state universities and colleges and other tertiary institutions identified as Centers of Excellence or Centers of Development by the Commission on Higher Education and in DOST-SEI identified network institutions all over the country.
This developed during the recent celebration of the 2014 National Science and Technology Week that featured, among others, the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that officially included BU and other new member-universities in the ASTHRDP-SEC.
BU President Fay Lea Patria Lauraya signed the MOU along with her counterparts representing five other universities across the country — Ateneo de Manila University, Central Luzon State University, De La Salle University, Mariano Marcos State University and Philippine Normal University — which are newcomers in the program, Briñas said.
They joined in the national consortium the original four members — West Visayas State University, University of San Carlos, Western Mindanao State University and Mindanao State University–Marawi City.
With this, Briñas said, the SEC, which was originally a consortium among four universities in the Visayas and Mindanao established to come up with a common quality graduate program in Science and Mathematics Education (SME) and to accelerate the development of a critical mass of experts in these areas, now grows to 10 for a wider coverage and more scholarship slots.
All these 10 higher education institutions offer master’s and doctoral programs in SME in which SEI scholars are required to enrol.
DOST Undersecretary Fortunato de la Peña, who initiated this ASTHRDP-SEC expansion, signed the MOU in behalf of the SEI, according to Briñas.
The expansion of the consortium, he said, signals more graduate scholarship slots in SME courses in the coming years and the development of a pool of world-class experts in these disciplines.
For school-year 2015-2016, the filing of application forms and requirements for the SEI Undergraduate Scholarship Examinations set on Sept. 21 ends today (Aug. 29).
Priority SME courses for the scholarship grants include agriculture, agricultural biotechnology, biochemistry, computer science, environmental science, fisheries, food technology, forestry, geology, information technology, science/mathematics teaching, statistics, and engineering courses.
In a statement related to these developments reaching here Friday, SEI Director Dr. Josette Biyo said “we are grateful for these new member-universities’ commitment to share their resources in making sure that we produce quality graduates in master’s and doctoral programs and in addressing defined needs in SME for developing national competitiveness.”
With this, she said, the graduate scholarship program is expanded to allow strengthening of research and development (R&D) in the country, particularly, in SME.
“The whole science community agrees that R&D remains to be the most critical driver of development. Through the expansion of the ASTHRDP-SEC, we are confident that we are sustaining and igniting even more the culture of R&D in the country among science and math teachers,” Biyo said.
SEI, she added, shall remain in the lead role in promoting R&D and innovation among the members of this critical sector of the S&T human resources as its primary strategy to contribute in nation building.
For BU, Lauraya said the university’s entry into the ASTHRDP-SEC comes as part of its goals to provide relevant and responsive curricular programs for undergraduate and graduate education which meet national and international standards of quality and excellence.
These academic programs, she said, are aimed at generating and transferring knowledge and technology that shall address poverty in the region, integrating research and extension activities to improve the productivity of key economic sectors supportive of sustainable barangay, provincial, regional and national economic development. (PNA)