Ateneo's Citation of Patricia B Licuanan PhD
PATRICIA B LICUANAN PHD
Government Service Award
Our Government Service awardee, Patricia B Licuanan, chair of the Commission on Higher Education, is a familiar face and presence to the Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU). For decades, she was an active leader and member of the ADMU academic community where she served as professor and chair of the Psychology Department, and later, academic vice president. Her stellar work in our university led to her appointment as president of Miriam College, where she served for thirteen years. She came to these positions academically prepared, having obtained a master of arts in Psychology from Cornell University and a doctorate degree in Social Psychology from the Pennsylvania State University.
Through her many years in academe, Dr Licuanan has done distinguished and world-class work. She has actively led and participated in research, training, and advocacy work in applied social psychology, education and educational reform, human resource development, and gender issues. As a young social scientist, she was an early voice expressing concern about the human costs of overseas employment of Filipino workers and continued as a tireless advocate for the rights of women migrant workers and their families in national and international fora.
Even before she joined government, Dr Licuanan played important leadership roles in a wide range of organizations. She was president of the Psychological Association of the Philippines (PAP), vice president of the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP), and president of the Association of Women Presidents and Chancellors of Private Colleges and Universities (SOPHIA). Dr Licuanan was also commissioner and chairperson of the Education Committee of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Dr Licuanan was an early advocate for the advancement of women’s rights and quality of life. In 1995, at the Beijing World Conference on Women, she chaired the main committee responsible for drafting the Beijing Platform for Action, a document which became the focal point and benchmark for the advancement of women’s rights and quality of life. She has headed regional women’s NGO networks such as the Asia Pacific Women’s Watch (APWW) and South East Asia Women’s Watch (SEAWWatch), chaired the Asia Pacific NGO Forum on Beijing +10 and was convenor of the Asia Pacific NGO Forum on Beijing + 15. She was also chairperson of the National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women (NCRFW), now the Philippine Commission on Women, in 1987–1992.
While acknowledging all her academic and professional accomplishments, the Ateneo de Manila University is conferring this year’s Government Service Award to Dr Licuanan, specifically for her visionary and excellent leadership of the Commission on Higher education (CHED), where she has been serving as chair for seven years now. Under her stewardship, CHED has been successfully implementing the Higher Education Reform Agenda, initiated by the administration of President Benigno Aquino III and continued under President Rodrigo Duterte. These reforms have been focused on access, quality, excellence, and efficiency.
Under Chair Licuanan’s watch, access to higher education has expanded through the strengthening of student financial assistance programs for lower income and disadvantaged groups through the Unified Student Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education or UniFAST. More recently, Congress enacted Republic Act No 10931, the Universal Access to Quality Higher Education Act, which is expected to further improve access to quality education.
To upgrade the quality of higher education, programs were enhanced, faculty development programs were offered, and linkages between academe and industry were strengthened. CHED also partnered with universities abroad to develop the capacities of Philippine universities to undertake cutting-edge research.
During her tenure in office, Chair Licuanan promoted and implemented an outcomes-based approach to higher education and also reformed the way higher education institutions are classified. Much work has been done to improve the quality of state universities and colleges, an important achievement because of their role in providing many Filipinos with access to higher education. These have all been challenging reforms, but resistance notwithstanding, CHED has succeeded in pursuing them, thanks to the vibrant and focused leadership of its chairperson.
At CHED, consistent with her long-time advocacy of women’s rights, Dr. Licuanan was instrumental in mainstreaming gender and development (GAD) in higher education, with support from advocates and activists. Since 2011, CHED has been spearheading gender summits which “roused the entire higher education sector from non-compliance or indifference to GAD policies and thrusts, to a linked and committed partnership from which emerged numerous programs, activities, and projects with the judicious use of the GAD budgets of public HEIs.”
Chair Licuanan has fully supported the K–12 Basic Education Program and has made sure CHED would help the country and its educational institutions adapt to the new system. A difficult transition period required CHED not only to manage resistance from certain sectors in the academe to the K–12 program as well as petitions in relation to changes in the core curriculum of tertiary education. CHED also developed programs that supported the displaced tertiary instructors through faculty development grants, research grants, among others.
These programs are made available to higher education institution (HEI) personnel, teaching or non-teaching, with employments terminated or contracts not renewed because of the K–12 implementation. Designed to protect the rights and welfare of these personnel, these government support programs aim to equip them with professional development, employment, livelihood, or entrepreneurship opportunities.
For steering the Commission on Higher Education to implement significant reforms in higher education and through the difficult transition in basic education that affected the curriculum as well as the faculty and personnel of tertiary institutions, for her tenacity and dedication to her duties despite challenging transition issues, and for a leadership in education marked by uprightness, integrity, practical wisdom, and a high level of competence, the Ateneo de Manila University confers on Dr Patricia Licuanan, Chair of the Commission on Education, the 2017 Government Service Award.
