CURRENT SEMINAR SCHEDULE - WOLLONGONG - 2005: ABSTRACTS

30 March: Coping with globalization, resisting commercialization: current problems of higher education in the Philippines

Professor Francisco Nemenzo
University of the Philippines

Biography: Professor Francisco Nemenzo Jr. has just ended his four-year term as President (vice-chancellor) of the University of the Philippines, a position that combines academic, administrative and ceremonial leadership of the largest and most important university system in the country. He was appointed to this position by the President of the Philippines, on the basis of his demonstrated commitment to university scholarship, the esteem in which he is held by his university colleagues, and his high and long standing as a public intellectual. During his term, he implemented a modernisation program, including full computerisation of administrative and library functions, and programs to encourage research publication, which resulted in a doubling of publication output. Professor Nemenzo is also one of the Philippines' most esteemed political scientists. Despite having been arrested and imprisoned for subversion by former president Marcos during martial law, he continues to write and speak about what must be done both intellectually and practically to protect and extend democracy and social well-being in the Philippines today.