ASU hosts first CHED-PASUC EEZ national forum
BY SALLY R. VILLASIS / RHEA V. MARTESANO

The Aklan State University (ASU) hosted the first of four Forums on State Universities and Colleges (SUCs)-Private Partnership on Education Economic Zones on August 17 to 19, 2011 at the ASU Review Center in Banga, Aklan.

The forum, sponsored by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and the Philippine Association of State Universities and Colleges (PASUC), aimed to provide a venue for sharing of the best practices on SUCs-Private Partnership and explore potential partnership with the private sector.

Participants to the forum are the SUCs President, Vice President for Academic Affairs, Vice President for Research and Extension, and Vice President for Production/Business and industry representatives from Regions VI, VII and VIII.

Oscar A. Torralba, Chair, Agri-Business Countryside Development Committee, Management Association of the Philippines/CHED Technical Panel for Business and Management, in his keynote address, discussed salient points about the Economic Education Zones (EEZ) as a Platform for Government-Industry-Academe (GIA) Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) in SUCs.

He emphasized that with SUCs facing intense competition for opportunities and for priority in fiscal allocation with the rising threat of budget deficits and the increasing demand by the globalized market, it was imperative for SUCs to shift to an innovative approach in facing these harsh realities. It was along this line that EEZ was introduced.

EEZ envisions to transform a SUC from being traditional, budget based and grant-driven into an enterprising one through the development of its natural resource endowments and the commercial application of the SUC research knowledge with strong private sector participation for long term cooperation.

Dr. Virginia Resurreccion, Director VI, CHEDRO 6, Iloilo City, in her message, conveyed about the importance of raising the country’s human capital in addressing the global issue on poverty.

She stressed that the achievement of this objective is through a strong curriculum that offers strong education and training of students who can compete in the global market and can match the emerging trends in the industry. While this can be hindered by lack of economic resources, it can be noted that this can be met through public private partnerships that can provide the key mechanisms for flexibility and accommodate growth in SUCs while creating jobs and spurring the economic growth in the newly conceptualized SUC curriculums.

With the possible partnership that will emerge between SUCs and the private sectors, Dr. Resurrecion noted the importance of all SUCs to focus in research, training and development it can provide an inexpensive offshoot to the growth of knowledge economy thus linking the need in providing the SUCs adequate financial support on R&D activities which can better achieved through partnering with the private sector.

The forum featured paper presentations on the following sub-themes: Curricular Enrichment/Development, Enterprise Development, Intellectual Property Management/Technology Business Incubation/Technology Commercialization, Business Process Outsource and Infrastructure/Physical Facilities Development.