UPOU Welcomes New Doctoral Students
This year, UPOU shall conduct its second doctoral orientation program with a new twist. Expected participants shall include both incoming students under the Doctor of Communication Program (DComm) as well as the PhD in Education Program. Taking-off from last year’s DComm Orientation experience, we have decided to expand the scope of this year’s orientation to include a “student congress” which the majority of orientation participants last year have suggested throughout the last semester.
The “orientation” component of DOSC 2012 shall provide opportunities for exchanges of ideas among faculty and students, during the morning plenary session of May 2, on the issues such as: the UPOU instructional delivery system; meaning, scope, and limitations of academic freedom as practiced at UP; learning at the doctoral level; and the knowledge agenda of the doctoral enterprise. During the break out sessions, the specific concerns of the two doctorate programs shall be discussed with the incoming students of these two programs separately as said two doctorate programs do have differing specific requirements.
A new feature of this orientation program is that, at least for the DComm students, we are requiring incoming doctoral students to prepare and submit poster papers or e-posters for display in the “Congress” venue. These poster papers deal with the research agenda (proposed dissertation topics) of the incoming students. How are we able to require this? Well, all applicants for admission to the DComm Program, for example, are required to submit their individual portfolios, which include, among other things, a statement of intent, which is a discussion of the applicant’s research interest and at least a simple discussion of what he/she intends to do as a dissertation under the DComm program. We’ve asked incoming students to prepare a poster paper on this research plan of action, which they shall exhibit and explain to interested individuals during the student congress. Display panels shall be made available for poster papers, and computers shall be made available for e-posters.
The UPOU Doctoral Orientation and Student Congress of 2012 (DOSC 2012) shall be held on 2-3 May 2012 at the UPOU Headquarters in Los Baños. Those who’ll be unable to be physically present in LB, i.e., non-Filipinos and foreign-based Filipinos, will still be able to participate online. The activities at the UPOU Headquarters shall be Webstreamed.
For the most part, the actual orientation day (May 2) was planned by the DComm Program, but the Student Congress component (May 3) was planned and shall be implemented largely by a core group of DComm students. This student-initiated “congress” provides the doctoral students (DComm and PhD in Education) an opportunity for on-going students to welcome in-coming ones, and share experiences as distance learners.
During the student congress on May 3, the issues to be discussed by on-going students include the following: being a distance learner, doing online library research (initial part of the review of related literature in the preparation of the dissertation proposal), presenting papers in conferences, paradigm shift from a communication practitioner to communication scholar, powerpoint as presentation tool for the doctoral student, and the general topic of what it takes to earn a doctoral degree. These topics shall be discussed by presenters who are on-going students of UPOU’s doctoral programs.
We take note that presenters this year are all from the DComm Program, mainly because there was no time to extend the work details to the Faculty of Education. Next year's orientation, however, shall be different and we'll have presenters from the PhD in Education group, thereby effectively expanding the scope of DOSC 2013. The long experience in distance learning among PhD in Education students will certainly make the Doctoral Orientation and Student Congress that much more interesting and beneficial to all. Of course, all students shall be free to interact and establish personal networks in this year's activity.
We take note that presenters this year are all from the DComm Program, mainly because there was no time to extend the work details to the Faculty of Education. Next year's orientation, however, shall be different and we'll have presenters from the PhD in Education group, thereby effectively expanding the scope of DOSC 2013. The long experience in distance learning among PhD in Education students will certainly make the Doctoral Orientation and Student Congress that much more interesting and beneficial to all. Of course, all students shall be free to interact and establish personal networks in this year's activity.
We wish to achieve four objectives in undertaking the DOSC 2012, namely: a better understanding of the philosophical basis, goals, and structures of the doctoral programs of the UPOU; sharing of experiences, particularly of on-going doctoral students with in-coming students; an opportunity for all doctoral students to further clarify their research agenda under the doctoral programs of the UPOU; and to provide in-coming students the opportunity to get themselves fully initiated as active members of a community of learners particularly at the doctoral level.
At the moment, the DComm Program staff is preparing a summary of the profiles of the DComm faculty to help the on-going DComm students, particularly those in their third year, select their respective dissertation advisers as early as possible. This information, we understand, is already available to PhD in Education students.
And now, we’re proud to inform our readers that during the DOSC 2012 we shall be launching the DComm Website. We hope that this shall provide DComm students additional means of intellectual interaction.
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UPOU Graduation Exercises
The UPOU shall hold its 16th Graduation Exercises on 5 May 2012. I understand 243 shall be awarded their respective academic degrees during the ceremonies late afternoon of that particular Saturday this May. Of note is the fact that this year we shall be honoring the first batch of graduates with the degree Bachelor of Arts in Multimedia Studies (BAMS). The 15 BAMS graduates shall be led by Ms. Joanna Camilla T. Leongson, who earned a GWA of 1.44 thereby qualifying her to graduate with honors, magna-cum-laude. As every one would know, it’s not easy to graduate with honors from UP. Ms. Leongson should be proud to be in the company of scholars. Congratulations!
Part of the UPOU Graduation Exercises is the cultural ceremonies, which, for this year, shall be held on 4 May 2012. On this day, the UPOU Alumni Association Foundation shall also meet (annual meeting) to discuss its various projects and to welcome the new UPOU graduates who shall be formally inducted to the UPOU Alumni Association and the UP Alumni Association. Currently, the President of the UPOU Alumni Foundation, Inc. is Former Senator Migz Zubiri, who happens to be an alumnus of the Master of Environment and Natural Resources Management (MENRM) Program, and this year’s Graduation Speaker.
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From the UPOU Publishing House
To be released by UPOU before the start of the First Semester (AY 2012-2013) is a new book titled Writing Your Thesis by this writer. This book is a sequel to the current book titled How To Write a Thesis Proposal, also by this same writer and previously published by the UPLB College of Agriculture, and which is also currently sold by the UPLB Foundation, Inc. The new book includes some guidelines on how to write your thesis manuscript, and a lot more new material.
This book is designed for thesis students. While I take full responsibility for the shortcomings of the book, I wish to thank Drs. Armi Santiago and Joey Lacson of the UP Diliman College of Mass Communication for reviewing the manuscript and giving me very valuable comments and suggestions for improving the draft manuscript. I’m pleased as well that both Drs. Santiago and Lacson have promised to ask their respective students to make full use of this book. I’m sure other thesis students would benefit from the practical guidelines that this book provides.
Look forward to this volume from the UPOU.
There's another book which will come off the press this mid-summer. This book, titled Development Communication in Directed Social Change, a Reappraisal of Theory and Practice, was edited by Professor Srinivas R. Melkote of Bowling Green University in the USA, and is being published by AMIC in Singapore. I wrote a chapter in it, titled "Development communication education in Los Banos: contributions from graduate research," which is about the analysis of the nature of dissertations in development communication as indicator of how devcom is taught at UPLB, at least in the last decade. The dissertations included in the analysis were undertaken by PhD students in devcom at UPLB-CDC from 2001-2010. I hope students of development communication worldwide should watch out for the release of this book because there's plenty of new information in it.
There's another book which will come off the press this mid-summer. This book, titled Development Communication in Directed Social Change, a Reappraisal of Theory and Practice, was edited by Professor Srinivas R. Melkote of Bowling Green University in the USA, and is being published by AMIC in Singapore. I wrote a chapter in it, titled "Development communication education in Los Banos: contributions from graduate research," which is about the analysis of the nature of dissertations in development communication as indicator of how devcom is taught at UPLB, at least in the last decade. The dissertations included in the analysis were undertaken by PhD students in devcom at UPLB-CDC from 2001-2010. I hope students of development communication worldwide should watch out for the release of this book because there's plenty of new information in it.
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