CONVERSATIONS ON JESUIT HIGHER EDUCATION
IN EAST ASIA/OCEANIA
May 26-27, 2006, Philippines

FIRST CONVERSATION: What are the issues/challenges that you encounter as head of an educational institution that is responsive to society, and that is Catholic and Jesuit?

1.  OUR  FUNDAMENTAL EDUCATIONAL APPROACHES

1.1. We need to reflect on our basic Jesuit educational approach like the Ratio Studiorum vis-à-vis the challenges of a globalized 21st century.

1.2. We need to reflect on the focus of our academic work, e.g. pure science vis-à-vis applied science and technology. Should we work toward becoming research universities or do we focus more on applied knowledge that helps social and people development?

1.3. We need to gear our research and outreach (e.g. teacher training institute, work with local governments) vis-à-vis building solidarity between rich and poor, given the increasing marginalization of people due to globalization.

1.4. We can improve our teaching through benchmarking, i.e., learning from others who are better than us (e.g. Singapore), rather than be theoretical about better ways of teaching.

1.5. Research can fulfill many roles, e.g. faculty promotion, intellectual growth and aliveness. Research relevance to the country is another matter. We need to connect research with real interests of the university, e.g. Cambodia for Sophia, understanding our students in Ateneo de Manila. There is a need to define more precisely what the problems we want to solve and understand are.

2.  OUR FORMATION WORK

2.1. We need to reflect on the formation role of academics, the formation of good people among educated people. Though we tend to dichotomize academic and formation, we need to strengthen the formation aspects of our co-curricular and extra-curricular activities. We need to take a hard look at our core curriculum vis-à-vis the informed and formed mind.

2.2. The role of teachers is not just academic but formation. They can be encouraged to be good Christian and Catholic models for our students. We need to form our teachers as formators, e.g. through the Spiritual Exercises.
    
2.3. Our strategies of formation can consider reaching out to a more diversified clientele e.g. nursing students.
2.4. Communicating our Jesuit values to our campuses and promoting our Catholic identity are essential components in our formation work in our schools.

3.  OUR UNIQUE RESPONSES TO OUR DIVERSE CONTEXTS AND ENVIRONMENTS

3.1. We need to correctly define what issues and challenges we really need to focus on. Unique contextual problems should define our priorities and selection of “special” areas for our work, e.g. the Beijing Center priorities, interreligious dialogue for societies which do not have a majority Catholic population.

3.2. We should reflect on the competitive environment in education, and the competitive situation our universities find themselves in. We need to think about improving our competitiveness and quality as Jesuit institutions.
   
3.3. This “competitiveness” has to be reflected on vis-à-vis reaching out to the poor and our mission to take on roles which others will not. We can also reflect on companionship and care (e.g. for our alumni) as one of the qualities that distinguish us from others.

3.4. A sensitivity to the cultural context is crucial. We need to address the weaknesses of the culture, e.g. how opening people’s minds to the outside world is important to the mission in Japan.  

3.5. We need to make choices for our key critical responses e.g. formation of leaders.

3.6. We can reflect on the schools as powerful instruments in society, given the diversity of our contexts, e.g. different degrees of Catholicity, availability of formed human resources.

GENERAL CONCERNS LEADING TO NEXT CONVERSATIONS:

1.  DIFFERENT LEVELS OF ISSUES/CHALLENGES AND LEVELS OF MISSION:

Our issues and challenges can be located at different levels: internal, regional, national, and international. Corresponding to these are different levels of mission.

2.  THE EXTENT OF OUR INFLUENCE AND CONTROL AS HEADS

2.1. What is the role of the Provincial in setting directions in the educational apostolate? How important is the educational apostolate to the Province vis-à-vis other apostolates?

2.2. The extent of our control is limited, hence the need to build academic leadership.

2.3. We can identify the specific aspects of a “Catholic university” that may be relevant to our cultural contexts, and these we can focus on.

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