A future-ready university

Sprawled at the foothills of the famed and enigmatic Mt. Makiling, the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) campus is perhaps the most relaxing UP campus around the country.

Here, the air is crisper, too; the grass is greener and the sound of chirping birds seems louder than usual. Time also seems to move more slowly in this place with an elevation of 1,090 meters; perhaps the young Albert Einstein, as the writer and physicist Alan Lightman imagined in his novel “Einstein’s Dreams,” was right – that the farther time is from the center of Earth, the slower it moves.

But it’s not to say UPLB is letting time pass it by.

On the contrary, under the current leadership of its chancellor Dr. Jose ”Dong” Camacho Jr., the university is actually racing against time to make UPLB future-ready.

I recently had the chance to visit UPLB on the occasion of its 105th Loyalty Day and it was my honor and pleasure to sit down with Chancy Dong, as the community calls him. What a stimulating and educational interview I had as I learned about his bold agenda for UPLB.

Chancy Dong calls it the AGORA, which stands for Accelerating Growth Through One Research & Extension in Action.

It is, in a nutshell, a research agenda which is all about making UPLB the country’s agora or marketplace for pioneering innovation, through systems thinking, solutions-making and future-proof paradigms.

“We envision a future-proof UPLB – a university that has relevance and pride of place in national development and international dialogue, one whose human resources are not only at par with, but also even exceed, those of other global institutions,” Chancy Dong said.

If this sounds too scientific which, in Filipinospeak, would make your “nose bleed,” it actually isn’t.

On a practical level, AGORA is really all about responding to the times through, say, digitalization, prioritizing research & development and allocating or sourcing more funds for such initiatives.

It’s about staying relevant in this fast changing world. The goal is to be a better institution that is at par with the world; one that produces graduates who are ready to face global challenges, and one that can help solve the country’s