ShareThisQUEZON CITY — Finance expert Alfredo Pascual became the 20th president of the University of the Philippines (UP) during a simple turnover ceremony on Thursday at the Quezon Hall in the UP-Diliman campus in Quezon City.
Outgoing president Emerlinda Roman turned over the symbolic UP mace to Pascual who will serve as UP president until February 9, 2017.
The UP Board of Regents, the highest governing body of the university, selected Pascual from among 11 nominees last December 3.
Pascual’s assumption of the UP presidency comes on the heels of the increasing public demand for higher education, increasing education costs, and diminishing state subsidies for state universities and colleges (SUCs).
As the first democratically-elected president who did not come from inside the UP academic community, Pascual brings to UP new perspectives on managing higher education institutions, financing higher education, and the role of UP as a national university in the development of the country.
In his vision paper, Pascual stressed the critical role of getting the commitment of the national government to underwrite the cost of education to maintain democratic access to UP education.
In his vision of making UP a great university, he also upholds the value of financial sustainability.
“A great university is a model for good governance to the country it serves. The UP leadership must observe the principles of democratic governance based on collegiality, representation, transparency, predictability and accountability,” Pascual said.
Pascual, who has a Master in Business Administration (MBA) degree from UP, has made a name for himself in the Asia-Pacific region as a development banker and educator.
For 19 years until 2008, he worked at the Asian Development Bank, where he pursued pioneering projects and institution-building initiatives. Before working at ADB, Pascual was an investment banker and also taught at UP, Asian Institute of Management and Ateneo de Manila University.
He was lead convenor of the Automated Election System (AES) Watch which monitored the preparation and conduct of the country’s 2010 elections. He was elected president of the UP Alumni Association in 2009.