THE PHILIPPINE educational research system has become a mess due to poor research methods, according to a renowned educator and researcher.
“We are just producing a breed of copiers (with repetitious research papers). The purpose (of doing research) is to add (knowledge), not to keep repeating what has been done before,” said Dr. Milagros Ibe, Miriam College Graduate School dean, during a research colloquium last Nov. 17 at the Thomas Aquinas Research Center auditorium.
According to Ibe, common errors like inadequate methodology and irrelevant data contaminate most researches in the country. Works should be subjected to peer review and criticism through publication, she proposed.
Nevertheless, UST Graduate School Dean Dr. Lilian Sison told the Varsitarian that the University has sufficient “quality-control” over student theses and dissertations.
“I agree that the quality of theses and dissertations in the country is not really at par (with that of) other countries. That’s why UST allows evaluators, either from other local or foreign universities, to grill our research works,” Sison said. “Besides, unless research papers from graduate schools get published, you cannot tell if you are really coming out with quality research.”
In Asiaweek’s “Asia’s Best Universities” in 2000, UST placed 74th with a 0.56 score in the field of research, compared with Japan’s Kyoto University, which ranked first with an 11.48 score.
To date, UST has eight research centers with a steady rise in the number of its theses and dissertations published internationally, according to a study Sison presented last August. Reagan D. Tan, with reports from www.asiaweek.com
