ASEAN 2015

What is ASEAN 2015 and why are school heads starting to worry about it?

First of all, there is nothing to worry about. ASEAN 2015 is an opportunity, not a threat. In fact, if we get our act together, we can become the ASEAN center in various fields.

Let me speak only about journalism education, since I head a professional institute for journalism. (The term “professional institute” is taken from the typology of the Commission on Higher Education.)

It is a mistake to think of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) only as a trade concern. While it is true that AEC’s main goals are described in trade terms (“single market and production base, highly competitive economic region, equitable economic development, full integration into the global economy”), the documents that have come out of various ASEAN meetings talk about many other things.

For example, AEC has as one of its objectives in 2015 “facilitating movement of business persons, skilled labour and talents.” Among these “talents” are academic human resources, since AEC includes among its “areas of cooperation” “recognition of professional qualifications.”

AEC refers to the “GATS W/120 universe of classification” of the World Trade Organization. If we look at that document, we will see under Cb. “Research and Development Services on social sciences and humanities,” under 5C “Higher education services,” and under 10B “News agency services.”

In short, journalism education is part of AEC.

The Philippines is unique among ASEAN countries because of the absence of government censorship of the media. We also have the most number of English newspapers in the region. Put those two facts together and you will understand why I think that the Philippines can be the center of English-language journalism education in ASEAN.

What will it mean if we indeed become such a center in ASEAN?

It means that we will have a lot more foreign students coming to enrol in our schools. Financially, that is a good thing for our schools and for our country, but it is also good in terms of the influence we will exert over ASEAN media.

To capture the ASEAN market for journalism students, for journalism research and development, for journalism itself, we need a critical mass of teachers and facilities. No school in the Philippines can do that alone.

Philippine schools that offer journalism, either as a major or as a minor, need to get together to ensure that we keep our competitive advantage over journalism schools in ASEAN. For one thing, although we may have serious reservations about world rankings of universities, the areas that these rankings focus on are crucial to education. Our journalism schools have to have an international outlook, which means international students and international faculty.

No Philippine school can afford to hire so many international experts in journalism (or in any other field, for that matter), but if journalism schools got together and shared resources, we should be able to get international experts to teach in several schools at the same time. With online teaching, we do not even need to have them come physically over. We can use Google Apps for Education, for example, to have interactive lectures from abroad beamed to several of our schools.

Through this column, I want to ask the heads of journalism programs in our colleges and universities to contact me and indicate their willingness to form a core of Philippine schools ready to become the center of journalism education in ASEAN by 2015. I will call a Journalism Education Summit next summer. My school email is [email protected]. You can also reach me through Facebook.

2015 is just over a year away. We have to move fast if we are going to take advantage of AEC.

If your area is not journalism education, take the cue from what we are doing. Think of your field and see if you can also become a center for ASEAN.

IN MEMORIAM (continued). This November, as I do every November, I remember dear artists, writers, and publishers whose lives I shared all too briefly: the departed members of the Manila Critics Circle (Leonidas Benesa, Miguel Bernad SJ, Ophelia Alcantara Dimalanta, Doreen Fernandez, and Alfrredo Navarro Salanga), my bridge-playing friends (Enrique Belo, Linda Campos, Phyllis Harvey, Syed Zeyaul Hoda, Paquito Javier, Puring Javier, Polly Nestle, Dioscoro Papa, Helen Saad, Rudi Santiago, Vic Santiago, Teresa Yuchengco, Efren Zaide, and Sachiko Zobel), my fellow Fulbrighters (Corazon Agrava, Rolando Dizon FSC, Rafael Donato FSC, Marcelo Fernan, and Andrew Gonzalez FSC), my fellow UPSCANs (Francisco Abao Jr., Ramon Casas, Jimmy Cruz, Violeta Calvo-Drilon, Mervyn Encanto, Generoso Gil, Louie Lagdameo, Bienvenido Lim Jr., Jaime Nierras, Emmeline Quinio, Johnny Ramos, Ruben Rivera, Wilfrido Santiano, Angelica Soriano, and Raquel Zaraspe-Ordoñez), my colleagues in FUSE (Josefina Cortes, Salvador Escudero III, Alberto Muyot, and Marsh Thompson), my fellow former Senior Government Officials (Emy Boncodin, Ed del Fonso, Quentin Doromal, Nixon Kua, Josefina Lichauco, Rizalino Navarro, Mario Taguiwalo, and Victor Ordoñez), my favorite teachers (Nieves Epistola, Joseph Galdon SJ, and Gil Raval), and my literary sister Lina Santos Cortes Raquion (daughter of my literary father Bienvenido Santos).