Written by Thea Bermudez

Currently, the University of the Philippines is holding partial face-to-face classes for selected courses during the first semester of the academic year 2022-2023. Now in accordance with the transition to the new normal, all undergraduate courses will return to campus in the second semester.

On February 28 of this year, an online UP System-wide faculty conference together with a subcommittee of the University of the Philippines Presidential Advisory Council (UP PAC) outlined criteria for the safe return to face-to-face classrooms in the aftermath of the pandemic. 

The meeting affirms that UP residential campuses will progressively reopen for the Second Semester of the Academic Year 2021-2022, particularly for courses under the curriculum where face-to-face lessons or activities are required to attain the mandated learning goals.

Prior to this conference, UP Manila already had 100% face-to-face lessons for its public health courses beginning July 2021. Currently, in the first semester of the current academic year, UP Manila is already conducting 100% face-to-face sessions for laboratory, studio, and practicum courses, as well as all courses at certain of its component institutions. 

However, not all UP Manila students can proceed with the gradual return to the campus. This is due to the deployment of course delivery methods based on course subjects: blended online learning (completely online), blended block learning (limited face-to-face), and classic blended learning (full face-to-face). 

For the first semester of the school year 2022-2023, subject courses from the BA Organizational Communication and the BA Philippine Arts remain under blended online learning at UP Manila.

This rather ‘slow’ shift to the norm will now come to an end in the second semester of this school year, as the University of the Philippines will finally allow 100% face-to-face sessions in all of its undergraduate courses. 

“This is complementary to the university’s adoption of hybrid and blended learning to equip students for the challenges of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and achieve educational resilience in a volatile and rapidly changing world,” said UP.

Meanwhile, UP announces that more information concerning face-to-face sessions in all courses and the learning delivery modality for graduate programs is currently underway.

References: