Abstract
The paper presents an analysis of higher education institutions (HEIs) as an important sector in addressing climate change issues through carrying out their intrinsic functions of instruction, research and capacity building. The huge amount of resources, expertise and knowledge in the hands of HEIs, particularly state universities and colleges (SUCs) strongly suggest the able fulfillment of their mandate under the Climate Change Act of 2009. A desk analysis of information gathered from websites, government budgets and related resources on 115 SUCs and selected private HEIs show an encouraging amount of responses in terms of integrating climate change issues into curricula, researches, capacity building, community engagement and external linkages, with some HEIs being more accomplished than others. However, efforts remain uncoordinated, and urgency in achieving commitments is absent. Much remains to be accomplished in asserting the role of HEIs in addressing climate change issues and for HEIs themselves to monitor their own pledges to Mother Earth.
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Notes
- 1.
This is amended by JMC No. 2015-01, dated March 24, 2015, Guidelines in Tagging/Tracking Government Expenditures for Climate change in the Budget Process.
- 2.
Source of HEI data: http://www.ched.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2014/temp/10-03/home/Higher%20Education%20Data%202014%20-%20Public%20and%20Private%20HEIs.pdf. The 2016 GAA lists 115 SUCs Main Campus (www.dbm.gov.ph).
- 3.
The 9 Clusters are: Food Security; Water Sufficiency; Human Security; Ecological and Environmental Stability; Climate-Smart Industries and Services; Sustainable Energy; Knowledge and Capacity Development; Finance; and Gender Mainstreaming.
- 4.
Based on the Commission on Audit Report on CHED (2014a), some Php1.23 billion of CHED’s budget for Student Financial Assistance Programs and another Php5.23 billion equivalent to the scholarship of 391,817 students were unutilized.
- 5.
The 2015 QS University Rankings for Asia ranked the University of the Philippines number 70 among 300 top universities in Asia (www.topuniversities.com, accessed on May 18, 2016).
- 6.
Findings of the Commission on Audit (2014b) on Typhoon Yolanda, a.k.a. Haiyan, suggest the need to build awareness among people on the extent of risks and threats of disasters such as a storm surge. SUCs/HEIs offer the best venue to this end.
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Cuaresma, J.C. (2017). Philippine Higher Education Institutions’ Responses to Climate Change. In: Leal Filho, W. (eds) Climate Change Research at Universities. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58214-6_5
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