The University of the Philippines (UP) Board of Regents (BOR) voted in favor of Dr. Melinda dela Pena Bandalaria as the next Chancellor of the UP Open University (UPOU) at their 1368th meeting held on 24 February 2022.
Chancellor Bandalaria’s 3rd term will run from 01 March 2022 to 28 February 2025.
Chancellor Bandalaria is the fourth Chancellor of UPOU, a home-grown staff member who started her career with UPOU as the Assistant to the Dean for the then School for Distance Education (SDE) – Los Banos. An opportunity to be a Faculty member then came, and she has since served as administrator — Director of the Office of Student Administration, then as University Registrar, and finally as Dean of the Faculty of Information and Communication Studies (FICS) where she served for two terms before her first appointment as the UPOU Chancellor.
Throughout her term as Chancellor, she has taken UPOU to greater heights and wider international recognition. She has also represented the Philippines internationally in terms of leadership in Open and Distance eLearning (ODeL). In 2021 alone, she was awarded the Individual Prize for the International Council for Distance Education (ICDE) Prize of Excellence for 2021 and was appointed as an ICDE Ambassador for Open Educational Resources. It is also under her leadership that UPOU was awarded the Institutional Prize at the International Council for Open and Distance Education. The Asian Association of Open Universities (AAOU) also bestowed on Dr. Bandalaria the 2021 Meritorious Award.
In the national arena, she steered the university towards fulfilling its mandate of assisting Philippine HEIs and SUCs to transition to flexible and technology-mediated teaching and learning through the UPOU #OpenFight Program which assisted about 600,000 individuals in 11,000 institutions all over the country with free training sessions, webinars, online courses and open educational resources.
For her third term, her vision is “UPOU@2025: A leading institution of open and distance elearning (ODeL) in the University of the Future (UoF) Framework.” She aims to further shape UPOU as a UoF through twelve action points under three strategic areas.
The first strategic area is “UPOU: Performing the Major Functions of a University.” Action points under this include (1) Microcredentialing and Stackable Credits Towards a Degree; (2) Conduct of Futures Research (3) Establishment of the Center on Immersive and Open Pedagogies (CIOP); (4) Data-driven/powered ODeL Ecosystem for Quality Education; and (5) Open and Inclusive Education.
Her second strategic area is “UPOU as part of the only National University in the Country (RA9500 and RA10650)”. Under this is a close collaboration with the Commission on Higher Education to (1) Assist other Philippine HEIs in migrating to Immersive Learning (thru the CIOP); (2) Continue contributing OERs to the PHL CHED Connect; (3) Activate the Consortium of Universities offering DeL; and (4) Development of the MOOC National Platform.
The third and last strategic area is “UP in the International ODeL Community through UPOU.” This area will focus on influencing and contributing to shaping the policy formulations and direction in research and practice of ODeL by (1) Continually working with SEAMEO Secretariat and relevant SEAMEO Centers in organizing and implementing activities related to ODeL (for ASEAN); (2) Seeking a seat at the AAOU Executive Committee in the 2022 election (for the term 2023-2025) to continue having a Philippine voice in the regional ODeL community (for Asia); and Active participation in the international/global discourse on ODeL/OFDL through the International Council on Open and Distance Education (ICDE) and related initiatives by UNESCO (UNESCO OER Dynamic Coalition), the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF), and the International Consortium on Benchmarking Framework (Internationally/Globally).
This vision for UPOU for 2022-2025 will be guided by the UP values of honor and excellence, along with equity/inclusion and sustainability. In addition, she mentioned on her vision statement that to achieve all these for UPOU, she is counting on the UPOU manpower as the most important resource, the support of the UP System, the trust and confidence of university partners; and the credibility and recognized expertise and leadership in the field of ODeL.
Upon learning of the decision of the UP BOR, Chancellor Bandalaria shared a message of thanksgiving on her Facebook page. Her gratitude goes to all the Board of Regent members who chose to trust her for a third term, especially to UP President Danilo L. Concepcion. She revealed that it was not in her plans to run a third term but was planning on going on a Sabbatical leave where she can spend time to prepare for her nearing retirement from public service. Along with her gratitude is an offering of herself and a promise to serve as UPOU’s Chancellor. She mentioned that the return of UPOU faculty members who are new PhD holders with improved vision and foresight for the university has made fruitful the sacrifice and effort to pursue UPOU’s mandate despite the limited workforce especially during the pandemic.
Her post ended with “Sa sama-samang pagkilos, walang imposible! Maisasakatuparan ang mga hangarin. Ito ang pinanghawakan ko sa mga nagdaang taon at muling panghahawakan sa susunod pang tatlong taon.”
Congratulations, Chancellor Bandalaria! Padayon! Para sa Bayan!
Written by Anna Cañas-Llamas
Edited by Joane V. Serrano
Graphics by Lovelyn P. Petrasanta
#UPOpenUniversity
