All – U.P. Academic
Employees Union
University of the Philippines System c/o College
of Social Work and Community Development
University of the Philippines
Diliman, Quezon City
October 20, 2006
Board of Regents
University of the Philippines
Diliman, Quezon City
Through the Honorable Faculty Regent Roland
Simbulan
Dear Honorable Regents:
The All UP Academic Employees Union, the union of the rank-and-file faculty
and REPS of the University of the Philippines duly registered with the
Department of Labor and Employment and the Civil Service Commission, would
like to request for a review of the “UP or Out Policy” for Instructors and
the Faculty Tenure Rules (popularly known as the “tenure or Out” or the “In
or Out” policy as provided for in the Revised University Code. We are also
requesting for a one-year moratorium in their implementation while they are
being reviewed.
Our recommendations are made in the spirit of nurturance of and collegiality
for our Instructors and Assistant Professors to enable them to fulfill the
University standards for faculty recruitment and/or tenure.
There are two specific provisions related the Faculty Tenure Rules that we
would like reviewed:
1. The five year “up or out rule” for instructors to complete their masteral
degrees in order to be elevated to the rank of Assistant Professor;
2. The three-year “tenure or out rule” for Assistant Professors to achieve
tenure on the basis of outstanding to very good teaching performance, that
the rationale behind the current Faculty Tenure Rules
The five-year “up or out rule”:
This provision allows the various academic units to hire as Instructors
young graduates with high potential for an academic career based on their
undergraduate performance. This ensures that young blood is infused into the
university’s academic staff and a new generation of academics is groomed for
the future.
The original rule providing Instructors five years (with a leeway to the
units to provide an additional two year extension for those who are in the
thesis stage in the fifth year of employment) to complete their masteral
degrees is generally fair.
What has been the source of complaints from the Instructors and even unit
administrators is the strict implementation of the five year rule in the
various constituent units and in UP Diliman, the added provision that closes
the door to reemployment in the University in perpetuity for those who were
not rehired because of their inability to complete their masteral degrees in
the time given them. (Cite BOR decision)
While the union recognizes that the University should set standards for its
teaching staff, and five years are generally sufficient for Instructors to
complete their masteral degrees, the various academic units at the college,
school, institute and/or department levels should be given flexibility to
utilize the two-year extension for those who have shown excellent teaching
skills and have justifiable reasons for not completing their graduate degree
in the prescribed five years. These reasons may include, but are not limited
to, the inability to access or to be granted study leave by their units or
who have been burdened by administrative responsibilities by their units.
The UP Diliman prohibition of future rehiring of former Instructors who were
not able to comply with the five-year requirement penalizes them for
perpetuity and does not recognize that there may be extenuating
circumstances for the non-compliance of certain Instructors to the five year
rule and the possibility that they would at a future time be in a more
qualified position to serve the university. We request that the prohibition
on the future rehiring of terminated UP Diliman instructors should be
stricken out. This will allow them to apply in the future and to be
considered among the pool of applicants and evaluated based on their merits.
In the implementation of the five-year (with two years possible extension),
the University should provide enabling conditions to optimize the chances of
the Instructors to fulfill the requirements.
These conditions include but should not be limited to:
A clear orientation on newly hired Instructors regarding the five-year rule
and the criteria for tenure track. If major changes to such criteria are
made after hiring, Instructors who have been hired prior to such changes
should be evaluated based on the criteria provided to them upon hiring;
Opportunities for study leave and fellowship to enable them to focus on
their study full time; Mentoring by senior faculty members and opportunity
to attend seminars on instruction given by the university; and Prohibition
on loading them with too many committee work or administrative work that
would get in the way of their studies and teaching.
The three-year “in or out” rule for Assistant Professors The current tenure
rule for Assistant Professors sets the following minimum requirements: at
least a master’s or equivalent degree, satisfactory teaching, and sole or
lead authorship of at least one refereed journal article (local or
international) or academic publication by a recognized academic publisher or
literary publisher in the case of literary work; or in the field of visual
arts, creative work that was exhibited and juried, or a similar requirement
in music and other performing arts. The probationary period is for three
years.
While this change corrects previous practice of Assistant Professors who
served meritoriously for as long as seven years without being granted
tenure, the strict requirement for publications in a refereed journal has
had negative effects on a number of untenured UP faculty in the absence of,
again, “enabling conditions” to fulfill this requirement. In a number of
disciplines, there are limited academic journals which can serve as outlet
for publications. In other cases, the refereeing process takes as long as
six months to one year, affecting the status of the untenured faculty once
his/her appointment ends.
The strict and inflexible application of the publication requirement has
meant the termination of
UP faculty members who have otherwise served the university well in terms of
their teaching ability and their extension work. Their termination also
meant a loss in the investment of UP which had given them fellowships for
the completion of their graduate studies.
Again, we are requesting for a review of the implementation of this policy
and for a moratorium in its implementation while it is under review.
We hope that the Board of Regents will grant this request which is being
made, as we have previously mentioned, in the spirit of in the spirit of
nurturance of and collegiality for our Instructors and untenured Assistant
Professors to enable them to fulfill the University standards for faculty
recruitment and/or tenure.
