UA&P President Dr. Winston Conrad B. Padojinog delivered the speech that follows during the Opening Rites of the University on August 9, 2023 at the Li Seng Giap Auditorium.
Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests, members of the Board of Trustees, and, most important, the talented individuals who make up our university community: the faculty members, administrative staff, partners, and students.
Welcome to the opening ceremonies of UA&P, our distinguished university that prides itself on being a hub of business and leadership education grounded on holistic and authentic liberal education.
From our last planning session in March 2023 until the townhall meeting we held last June, we have reminded ourselves of our unique identity as a molder of future leaders – whether in business, economics, public office, or private and non-government organizations. Today, we again embark on this transformative journey that will shape those who pass through the august halls of our institution: the future leaders who will be responsible for the future and destiny of many. This identity should serve as a jumping board for creating unique identities for the other projects that we have. We have carved out a niche in areas like law and in education, and in the future we will have one for a regional business school, and in medical and allied health care education.
Around, you can see very diverse groups of professionals and students with different backgrounds, credentials, competencies, and experiences. All this diversity contributes to the single but unique, applicable, and personal formation that can only be experienced in UA&P. We foster authentic liberal education geared towards the integral development of everyone—faculty, administrative staff, students—so that in the practice of our leadership roles now and in the future, we get to distinctly weld in everything we do and plan to do the union of faith and reason, the pursuit of truth and the common good, and the capacity to make free and upright decisions and to serve society.
We are aware that the world is rapidly changing. There is a massive shift towards decarbonization, sustainability, and digitization. Speaking of digitization, there has been a push by many educational institutions to abandon holistic education for the more convenient, cost-effective, and thus lucrative online education, with an undue focus on and prioritization of specializations. Yes, there are tangible benefits from online education and focus on specializations, but the intangible costs will be higher and will only be felt in the future.
For us at UA&P, our focus is on upholding the humanity of our students – society’s future human capital – so that as persons they will thrive, transform society, and be truly happy for they will know the meaning behind what they do and why. As a molder of future leaders, we are committed to equipping our students with the knowledge, skills, and mindset necessary to thrive in this ever-evolving environment.
We are preparing everyone to welcome machine learning and artificial intelligence like ChatGPT, robots, and humanoids. However, we need to acquire a solid foundation that can be achieved through a genuine holistic educational experience. For us, this means working towards more in-person presence in the school to fully embrace the essence of holistic education. Nothing can ever replace the lessons and experiences only person-to-person interaction can give. Here we learn empathy, communication, teamwork, complex problem-solving, dialogue, conflict resolution, self-sacrifice, and service to others. Digital technology and AI should be more of a tool to complement and augment our teaching and learning; it cannot serve as a substitute for on-campus learning and presence.
Our unwavering focus on holistic development should truly set UA&P apart. To cement UA&P’s unique identity as a molder of leaders, we will have specializations and competencies grounded on authentic liberal education – history, arts, literature, philosophy, and theology. It is only through these that we acquire critical skills that robots may find difficult to duplicate, like creativity and critical, strategic, and multidisciplinary thinking. In addition, leadership extends beyond mastering technical skills and acquiring knowledge. It also encompasses emotional intelligence, cultural sensitivity, and ethical decision-making. Therefore, our curricula should be designed to cultivate not only the intellect but also the character of our students to empower them, help them make morally upright decisions, and choose to be positive change agents in the world.
Besides marking our unique identity in the market as molders of leaders in business and institutions, we also need to follow through with the other aspects of our strategic thrusts that we all have committed to do over the last five years.
Digitization. We should thrive to embrace digital technology to improve our teaching and learning. We recently completed “the Nest” – the digital multimedia hub in Study Hall B for the use of our students, faculty, and administrative staff to enhance their knowledge and upgrade their skills in the use of digital technology. This is part of our ongoing commitment to improve our digital learning systems, the efficiency of our processes, and, ultimately, the experiences of our stakeholders.
Diversification. We have committed to developing other channels of resource generation to enlarge the revenue pie, reducing our reliance on tuition alone. We will continue to introduce unique short courses to upskill, reskill, and retool executives and professionals. We will enlarge our endowment pool to fund scholarships. We aspire that soon the proceeds alone from our endowment funds will be sufficient to cover our other operational needs and unlock resources for future undertakings that will cement our relevance in society.
Collaboration. Our identity as a business and leadership school should extend beyond the confines of our campus and be built along strong partnerships with industry, our alumni, entrepreneurs, and select academic institutions, locally and globally. From internships and consulting projects to entrepreneurial ventures and global study programs, these experiences will challenge our students, expand the range of their experiential learning opportunities, and enable them to collaborate with diverse teams and apply knowledge in real-world settings. These collaborations should allow us to expand our capacity and offer unparalleled opportunities to students, faculty, and the administration, deepen our network of influence, learn up-to-date knowledge and skills from industry experts and mentors, and gain invaluable insights and foresight into the world of business-related and economics education, and leadership. But before we even collaborate with others outside our university, let us first break down the barriers, the silos, which inhibit collaboration within our university community. While collaboration makes us vulnerable when we work closely, it is always for the greater good: The rewards of working together far outweigh whatever burdens and difficulties we encounter. Moreover, we are interdependent: the outcomes from the action or inaction of one have repercussions on the work of the other.
Innovation. We should embrace innovation, including the emerging trends that will define the future of our professions, our students, the world of work and culture, and business and leadership. Our faculty members must be like scholars, researchers, and people development advocates, always at the forefront of their fields, ensuring their skills and knowledge are relevant, cutting-edge, and globally competitive. We should be attentive to the needs of the market, and from there work through our programs and the projects they need. The lessons, insights, skills, and mindsets that we impart in the classrooms will leave deep impressions and have long repercussions in the lives of our students, executives, partners, and collaborators.
And lastly, expansion. Let us expand the scope of our geographical reach with our improved existing and new course offerings combining the different modes of learning – whether online or in-person, synchronous or asynchronous, hybrid or hyflex. Let us capitalize on digitization, which has democratized the pursuit of big ideas with asset-light investments. Be open to new ideas, perspectives, and experiences so that we can seek out opportunities for our university to pursue and for our own personal and professional growth. Since opportunities may call for new ideas and experimentations, let us brace ourselves for the failures that may come with them, for we learn more from our failures than from our successes.
In conclusion, let us dream and dream big and infect others with the same vigor. Let us share with them our aspiration so that our dream will also be their own. Together, we will shape the future of UA&P, leaving a legacy to the present and future generations to benefit from and to build upon.
And with this and the virtue of the authority vested upon me as President of the University of Asia and the Pacific, I declare the academic year 2023-2024 open.
Thank you.
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