The University of the Philippines (UP) Mystique: Is it Real or Just a Bravado?

In 1979, Macmillan company published the controversial 237-page book titled The Harvard Mystique: The Power Syndrome That Affects Our Lives From Sesame Street to the White House. It was written by Enrique Hank Lopez, an American lawyer of Mexican descent popularly called as Hank, himself a Harvard graduate. The author claims that Harvard University is the world’s primordial academic institution. Conversely, from Harvard University radiates global economic and political power. In short, coming from Harvard denotes a certain mysticism or aura, if not an outright power and influence. Among others, Hank argued that John F. Kennedy’s US presidency may be attributed to him being a Harvard graduate. I wonder how Barack Obama attributes his ascendancy to the US presidency as a Harvard graduate. 

Sometime in August 1987, I had a personal glimpse of such a Harvard mystique. It left a unique experiential impression on me. It was my first overseas trip in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. I was given a six-week fellowship as a Research Associate at the prestigious East-West Center where we attended a series of lectures about protected areas and biological diversity. One of our guest lecturers was a lawyer (ethnically from India). After introducing him as a Harvard University graduate, our course coordinator put his hands on his chest like a Buddhist monk and made a gentle vow. (He never showed such a vow of reverence to other guest lecturers, whose credentials were equally – if not more impressive being graduates of other US Ivy League Schools such as Cornell University and Yale University.) Why did he show such a distinctive recognition, if not reverence, for a Harvard graduate? Is there a parallel of Harvard University in the Philippine context?

Fast-backward sometime in 1977 in Sablayan,Occidental Mindoro, to provide the context. We were flabbergasted to hear our late father shouting like a man possessed as if he had won millions in a lottery. Earlier, the mailman came to our house and gave him a parcel. The reason: I passed the University of the Philippines College Admission Test (popularly called as UPCAT) and I would be studying at the University of the Philippines at Los Baños (UPLB). Naively, I asked him as a 15-year-old provincial lad what was the big deal about it. He responded that the University of the Philippines (UP) system in our country is just like the Harvard University in US. There goes the parallelism: both are claimed to be the best and both have mystiques.

Then, he started rattling the never-ending argument that there are only two schools:(1) UP and (2) Others. He told me that I was lucky because graduates of UP are often held in high esteem. There is a certain ‘mystique’ that UP graduates are the best, if not among the excellent ones. Hence, they used to populate the government service, private sector and civil society organizations. High profile graduates of UP included at that time former President Ferdinand Marcos, former Prime Minister Cesar Virata and Dr. Fe del Mundo, the first Filipina woman admitted as a student of the Harvard Medical School.  

Let me tell you now my own discourse as a UP insider regarding this so-called UP mystique. The starting point is 77-14659. That is the number that I will never, ever, forget. Why? Because that is my student number when I enrolled at UPLB in 1977. I joined two groups: the ‘alliance of kitchen boys’ called as Hijackers (Figure 1) and the academic organization called as OZOOMS (Figure 2). I graduated while I was barely 19 in 1981 with a Bachelor of Science (BS) in Zoology.

My reflection is divided into five interlinked parts. Firstly, UP is not a monolith. It was never, and perhaps, will never be. Just like any established religion, it has mavericks, splinters and variants. If UP as an institution is unwarrantedly criticized, then all its graduates will converge and close ranks as a single entity. Regardless of where they come from, they will all defend UP to the hilt. Remember the collegiate basketball Game 1 between UP and Ateneo on 1 December 2018? The UP community members were simply united despite knowing the odds were stacked against them.

In the absence of any external provocation, though, we may ‘squabble’ among ourselves. Hence, that is where the internal debate about ‘UP Diliman’ versus ‘Other UP Units’ come in. The UP Diliman graduates will claim that those from UP Los Baños are nothing but miserable farmers; those from UP Baguio are primitive highlanders; and those from UP Visayas are just lowly and despicable fishermen. Hell – they don’t even consider UP Manila graduates as among their own cohorts! UP Diliman remains the majority, though. During the Palawan Chapter’s UP alumni association event last year in Puerto Princesa City, they outnumbered all other UP graduates (Figure 3).

The second point relates to this question: Who is actually from UP? Up to this day,the controversy associated with such a question has remained unresolved. The consensus is that anybody who has been accepted to the UP system – regardless of whether or not they finish their respective courses – is from UP. But not everyone agrees with that. There are purists who argue that only those who actually graduated from UP deserve to be called from UP.Others counter that transferees from other schools or those who do not pass the UPCAT cannot be called from UP. A few are even more fundamentalist with this interpretation: only those who finished their undergraduate degrees (meaning BS or BA) are the real UP alumna. Those who only finish their masteral or doctorate degrees in UP are simply ‘UP by association’, if not outright UP pretenders. Associated arguments from thereon are endless and will not be covered here for lack of material space.

Thirdly, we want our children to be part of the academic tradition. It is like having an ‘academic incest’, if there is such a term. I have yet to see a UP graduate who did not encourage his/her siblings, even tacitly, to take the UPCAT. All our three children took their respective UPCATs, although nobody among them made it. They successfully graduated from other schools, nonetheless belonging also to the top. (Mikhail Robert a Silver Medalist with BS in Computer Engineering from Mapua Institute of Technology; Michael Angelo Jr. a BS Architecture from University of Sto. Tomas or UST whose rating in the Architecture Board Exam was close to the Tenth Placer; and Zarina Hannah, a BS Nursing Graduate (cum laude), also of UST). All of them are now successful professionals. They think that UP system is over-rated, and given their relative successes and statures, I could not argue otherwise.

Fourthly,the societal issues being tackled now by students appear to be different. UP activists like Abraham Sarmiento Jr and Lean Alejandro advocated relevant societal issues such as agrarian reform, labor rights and nationalism. While UP remains at the forefront of modern critical concerns such as gender equality as well as greater role of science and technology, the issues now being engaged with by the UP studentry appear to be less critical. I was told that students now are more pre-occupied with infrastructure amenities such as parking space, internet access and posh coffee shops inside the UP campuses!

The world of work is my fifth and final point. I would say that my UP education has helped me land my first job within just a few months after graduation. I was employed as a Researcher at an Integrated Area Development project office in Palawan. This organization was like a UP extension office as more than 50% of technical staff were UP graduates. The HR casually mentioned that they often hired either UP graduates – if not honor graduates from other schools.

A word of caution, though, when your co-workers are from UP. Why? Because they could be double-edged swords. They are generally technically capable but their attitudes are poles apart. Those with positive attitudes could make life easy for you. Many will produce excellent results with minimal supervision. Nevertheless, those with attitude problem could make your life a living hell. They will even tell you point blank that you are only one among equals.

I remain proud of being a UP graduate not because I feel superior to the graduates of other schools. I simply feel that I could compete with them. Academically, if my memory serves me right, my General Weighted Average or GWA was only 2.2. By standard, that was a mediocre scholastic achievement, and I most likely belonged adjacent to the ‘herd of average’ among the 1981 graduating class! Hence, what I got from my UP education was not academic excellence.

Instead, my UP education has taught me something else: to be resilient – to have both guts and grit. Maybe, that was the most important contribution of UP that I might not have acquired elsewhere. At 15 years of age, for the first time in my life, I was left all alone at UPLB. Virtually, I had no safety net and no one else to lean on. Hence, when I was handed my diploma in April 1981 (Figure 4), I proudly said to myself: “I have survived!”

Yes, survival. More precisely, individual survival, certainly with help from friends and others who are in the same boat. In UP, you have to paddle your own canoe. You have to do your assignment yourself.  You cannot buy your term paper in Recto – and certainly nobody else can take an exam for you. While talent and support network count, it is your own fortitude that matters in the end.

While we sympathize with those who quit their UP schooling along the way – and those who truly tried but were eventually kicked out – we only count those who got to cross the finish line. We even lambast our own basketball players in the UAAP. While those from other schools cheer for their athletes, we are capable of ridiculing our non-performing basketball player by broadcasting in the court that he has failed his math subject!

Going back to this article’s sub-title, the truth of mystique versus bravado is somewhere in between. What may appear as a bravado of a typical UP graduate is not necessarily a swagger. To me, it is more the stance of somebody who has survived the academic rigor. And there is where probably the mystique lies: the aura of a survivor.

Thus, UP graduates are prized not necessarily for their brilliance or academic excellence but for their capability to deliver. Employers are looking for those who can work independently and deliver the expected outputs during unfavorable conditions and crunch time situations. In many cases then, employers tend to bet on a work force of survivors.

In closing, UP graduates may still be considered as among the best. Admittedly, though, they are not necessarily the best these days. Other tertiary-level and graduate schools, particularly Ateneo De Manila University and De La Salle University, have closed the gap considerably. There are even counter arguments that they may have already overtaken UP in terms of Research and Development areas.

Yes, there is still a UP mystique but it is now fading, albeit slowly. As an institution, UP needs to re-think its niche and position in the hierarchy of Philippine academic institutions – particularly its remaining comparative advantages. Otherwise, such a UP mystique may not last very long, if at all.

Copyright © 2019 Michael D Pido