Category: NEWS & EVENTS

All UP constituents, students, faculty, administrators, and staff, are dealing with the “uncertain” and “unusual” situation forced by the COVID-19 pandemic on teaching, learning, and operations.

This was acknowledged by the officials of the University of the Philippines in its online welcome ceremony for students on September 9, the day before the first semester of Academic Year 2020-2021 officially started. UP President Danilo Concepcion, Vice President for Academic Affairs Maria Cynthia Rose Bautista, and Student Regent John Isaac Punzalan all said the event was certainly not the welcome new and returning students expected.

UPV Teaching and Learning Resource Center in collaboration with the Division of Humanities (HumDiv), Division of Physical Sciences and Mathematics (DPSM), and in partnership with the UP Open University (UPOU) offered its first remote Bridge Program.

The Bridge Program is an annual preparatory course for incoming first-year students in need of upgrading their skills and mathematics and/or in English. The remote experience in the Bridge Program also served as the freshpersons’ first exposure to online modular classes.

“Significant quantities of food produced today across the globe are lost and wasted across the supply chain and never make it to the mouth of consumers. Food loss and waste is one of the most challenging contradictions of our time.”

Thus, said Dr. Maximo Torero Cullen, chief economist at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), after stressing that an estimated value of US $400 billion of food are lost all over the world, while more than 600 million people remain hungry and three billion do not have access to a healthy diet.

Dr. Cullen presented these facts during the webinar that was dedicated to mark the first International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste (IDAFLW) on Sept. 29, which the UPLB Postharvest Horticulture Training and Research Center (PHTRC) co-organized with FAO.

As the country’s leading academic institution in open learning and distance education, the University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU) adheres to the philosophy of open education and has been a staunch advocate of Open Educational Resources (OERs) and open access courses.  As early as 2012, the UPOU has crafted its OER policies and has put in place strategies to promote, support, contribute and integrate OER values in its institutional processes and practices.

The five-part ePraxis webinar that centered on COVID-19 issues in human settlements planning concluded on Sept. 24 with its focus on water, sanitation, and waste.

ePraxis was organized by the Department of Community and Environmental Resource Planning (DCERP) of the College of Human Ecology (CHE).

The webinar’s edition featured three speakers, each based in the Philippines, USA, and the United Kingdom.

What happens when plastics and pandemics collide? In a Let’s Talk it Over (LTiO) webinar, the Master of Environment and Natural Resources Management (MENRM) program led a discussion on the double whammy problem of the COVID-19 pandemic and plastic pollution. The webinar was live-streamed on 30 September 2020 via the University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU) Networks, UPOU Multimedia Center Facebook page, and UPOU YouTube channel.

Tourism can still be done during this pandemic, for as long as health and safety protocols are observed.

This is according to For. Roberto Cereno, UPLB’s ecotourism expert, at the sixth edition of the webinar “Living dangerously series” of the School of Environmental Science and Management (SESAM) on Sept. 24. 

In his presentation entitled “Ecotourism beyond the pandemic: picnic after the panic?” For. Cereno lamented that the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the tourism industry worldwide, with US$730 billion recorded loss in tourism exports.

Officials of the University of the Philippines (UP) Mindanao and the local governments of Davao del Norte witnessed a milestone in their collaboration agreement with the turnover of a COVID-19 testing facility by the builder Maer Summit Konstrukt Company to the end-user Davao Regional Medical Center (DRMC) in ceremonies held on 27 August 2020, in the Davao del Norte Provincial Capitol in Tagum City. Mr. Dino Mae Suelto, the Managing Partner of Maer Summit Konstrukt, presented the certificate of turnover to DRMC chief Dr. Bryan Dalid in the presence of the project partners.