The UP System General Education (GE) Conference 2026 was conducted on 4-5 June 2026, at the Institute of Biology, UP Diliman. The conference theme was “Pagtanaw sa KaaGE: Through the Years.” The conference’s three major goals – Look Back, Look Through, and Look Forward were discussed in three parallel sessions. The plenary sessions discussed studies about the UP GE Program and the reimagination of GE assessments driven by artificial intelligence (AI).
From left to right: aProf. Edmerson Z. Calungsod, Dr. Leo Mendel D. Rosario, Dr. Shari Eunice T. San Pablo, aProf. Roda L. Tajon, aProf. Lloyd Lyndell P Simporios, Asst. Prof. Maria Alicia A. Sarmiento, aProf. Roja L. Rivera, Dr. Aurora V. Lacaste
The delegation from the University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU) was headed by the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Dr. Aurora V. Lacaste. She was joined by the UPOU GE+ Committee and faculty members, three of whom presented their GE research studies.
Asst. Prof. Ari Luis C. Halos presented a study on “Understanding Student Trajectories: A Statistical Examination of Cross-Enrolment, Dropout, Failure, and Extension Incidences at the University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU).” Some inquiries raised about the said research were on the course management of large class sizes involving hundreds of students.
Asst. Prof. Maria Alicia A. Sarmiento, with her co-author Dr. Shari Eunice T. San Pablo, also presented their study, “Arts 1 at the Open University: Reflections on teaching creativity and criticality through Open Distance eLearning.” Research presenters from other constituent universities emphasized the contribution of this research in terms of reporting the diminishing quality of discussion forums brought by the AI dependency of learners.
Lastly, a study called “Curricular Mapping of UPOU General Education Courses for Sustainability Competency Integration” was presented by the Assistant to Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs (A2VCAA) for Instruction, Dr. Leo Mendel D. Rosario. It highlighted UPOU initiatives on embedding sustainability in formal courses.
The climax of the conference was evident in the expression of support and solidarity on the “𝗣𝗮𝗵𝗮𝘆𝗮𝗴 𝗻𝗴 𝗸𝗮𝗴𝘂𝗿𝘂𝗮𝗻 𝗻𝗮 𝗱𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗼 𝘀𝗮 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲 𝗨𝗣 𝗚𝗘 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘂𝗸𝗼𝗹 𝘀𝗮 𝗥𝗲𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗱 𝗚𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗘𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗻𝗲𝗻𝘁.” This conference statement was agreed by more than 300 GE faculty members of the whole UP System.
Written by Dr. Leo Mendel D. Rosario and Maria Allyza R. Apolonio | Edited by Alvie Simonette Q. Alip
