He also revealed his plans to partner with the City Government of Davao to establish a college of medicine and a medical center within UP Mindanao.
Jimenez said UP is reaching out to other state colleges and universities not just to “help raise academic standards, but also where it can cooperate and collaborate as an equal partner, and learn from SUCs with advanced and specialized expertise in certain areas.”
Jimenez reminded his own constituents to “remain humble enough to realize that [UP] has no monopoly of knowledge, and that, unlike rain falling from the sky, the best knowledge grows from the ground.”
According to him, it is high time to find multiple pathways for students to enter UP. He said his advocacies include solutions to the currently flawed UP College Admission Test where 60 percent of the passers come from private high schools.
“Our educational system remains terribly skewed in favor of children from privileged and urban-based families, and our admissions policy unfortunately does not do enough to correct that bias. If we are to be a truly national university, this has to be addressed,” Jimenez stressed.
UP President Angelo Azura Jimenez meets the press. Photo courtesy of UP Media and Public Relations Office
He said in the press conference that among the things they are looking at now is to use a data science system to spot talented students from poor families. Jimenez said that the standard of choosing deserving students would be based on need, not merit.
But he clarified that “it’s all in the works right now.”
Jimenez said that when he gathered the UP System’s senior administrators to help chart the court of his administration, their most significant decision was to add one word to UP’s “Honor and Excellence” motto.
“That simple but deeply meaningful word was ‘Service.
’ Honor and excellence are inherent in the individual, but service looks beyond the individual and locates him or her in our nation and society,” he pointed out.