AN ARTLET alumnus has urged English Language Studies (ELS) majors to persuade political leaders to properly fund the academe and the research sector as they play key roles in developing knowledge.
Wilfred Gabriel Gapas, an educator and independent researcher, said research efforts in various Philippine higher education institutions are being crippled by immense defunding and systematic disinvesting.
“Universities are in crisis and is a highly unstable industry […] This crisis has two reasons. The first reason is an economic reason. This is decades of systematic disinvestment and defunding of higher education institutions’ research and development initiatives,” Gapas said during the “Ready, Set, G!” career webinar last Nov.18.
“We engage in the scholarship of teaching and learning. We are trying to find ways for our teaching methods [to] not only [be] based on assumptions, but also must be research-based,” he added.
Properly funding research would help ease the budgetary requirements involved in publishing studies, Gapas said.
“We have this system wherein if you do not publish, sorry, but your career will not propel. In many ways this is toxic because […] the lack of positive support for researchers is widespread,” the educator said.
“In fact, many faculty members who are doing their research do this kind of research from their own wallets,” he added.
Despite the constraints, Gapas encouraged English majors to pursue a career in the academe to help generate new knowledge and to influence communities to become socially responsible.
“Research is relevant to the people we serve,” he added.
The webinar was organized by the English Language Studies Society and was held via Zoom.
The Flame is a media partner of the virtual forum. F – Matthew Dave A. Jucom
