Meet Professor Absentee

A university is a world full of symbiotic relationships—from professors to the students and from students to the professors. These symbiotic relationships accomplish the mission of the university—to produce competitive graduates and contribute in the nation building. But in some classes, there are no professors, so how can this mission be accomplished?

Professors and instructors are some of the most important stakeholders in the university. They are the instruments for learning. They are the second parents of their students. They impart not only knowledge from books and websites but also good values and experiences. They train the future engineers, IT specialists, entrepreneurs and skilled manpower and ready them for the industry. Without them, students will not learn about their specializations, that’s why they need somebody to guide them and impart knowledge to them; and that’s why this university hires competent and knowledgeable professors.

The university makes sure that they only give the best professors that the human resources can offer. It has hired professors from the University of the Philippines, those with masteral and doctoral degree, academically excellent alumni, and those with real experiences in the industry. There is no question about their skills in teaching. The big question is their absences.

Meet Professor Absentee. When a professor is absent, no symbiotic relationship will be made and therefore, no mission will be accomplished. There will be no classes and therefore there will be no learning. A professor who has had only three or four classes before major exams is terribly not tolerable, especially if he is holding a major subject. It is also a pain if this Professor Absentee holds a pre-requisite subject. What will be the background of the students in their certain subjects with pre-requisites if they didn’t have any concrete learning in those pre-requisite subjects because of Professor Absentee?

It is unfair for the city that is paying for the students’ tuition fees if the students don’t learn anything because the professors, whom they are also paying for the salaries and benefits, are always out of reach. The result is a chain effect—the student doesn’t learn, the university doesn’t produce competitive a graduate, the graduate lands on the wrong job, there is no contribution to nation building. The mission is not accomplished.