Surmounting Top-Down and Bottom-up Higher Education Challenges in the Philippines: The Ifugao State University Experience

The changing facets of higher education institutions with regards to their mission are evident. It follows that the operationalization of mission statements of universities focuses more on profitable gains rather than being a mere school of thought. Conduct of research has been introduced in universities as one major selling feature to advance their capacity, quality, and ranking status. With the demand for quality graduates needed by the job market along with the increasing international branch campuses by higher education institutions, universities and colleges in the Philippines need to embrace some policy changes so as to deliver expected deliverables in higher education in preparation for ASEAN 2015. The objective of this paper points to a discourse about higher education in the Philippines and the governments response to the challenges pressed from the global and local standpoints. The discourse is preceded with trends and challenges on higher education from the international, regional, national, and local levels. Comprehensive analyses of the trends and challenges in higher education based on secondary data are the methodology employed in this paper. The Ifugao State University, a public higher education institution in the Philippines located 314 kilometers north of Manila will be cited after presenting the arguments so that impactful policy recommendations will be drawn. The key issue to be addressed in this paper is how to surmount local, national, and global challenges for a solid strategic direction towards national development.