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Well, the Times Higher Education-QS World University Ranking (THES-QS) released the results of their 2007 survey. What is “impressive” is the fact they still have the University of the Philippines ranked despite the fact that the university refuses to participate in the survey. Nevertheless, UP achieved the highest ranking among Philippines universities, even if it scraped the bottom 400 list!

Despite UP’s non-participation, the data that THES-QS was able to get placed it above universities such as the Royal Holloway (Uni. of London, UK), Kent (UK), Brigham Young (US), Louisiana State (US), University of South Florida (US) and Temple University (US).

Another Philippine university, Ateneo de Manila University, got into the remaining 401-500 top universities with De La Salle University and University of Santo Tomas nowhere to be found.

Whilst the ranking is mostly based on a university’s financial capability (to improve facilities, attract faculty members, fund research, attract international students), one just cannot ignore the numbers, which somehow also gives universities bragging rights.

The Academic Year 2008-2009 started last June 10, when I was in San Francisco attending WWDC. I have yet to meet my class but I asked a colleague to inform my students that I will meet them on Monday.

This semester, I am a bit excited primarily because of the new class that I will be handling. It is the first time that Computer Science Education is being offered and I am hoping that I’d get students interested in using their Computer Science skills in improving education, both CS Education and K-12 education.

I am thinking of how I can apply what I have learned from Clayton M. Christensen’s book, “Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns“. (here’s an interview courtesy of Amazon.com). I enjoyed reading it during the flight home.

Hope that the students will appreciate how I act as facilitator in the classroom instead of the boring lecturer that they are often meet. The unfortunate thing is, students are often shy up to a point of not speaking up (or worse, not asking questions!). This is a challenge for me — to be able to get them to participate actively in the classroom, which is very much unlike how I was taught!

So wish me luck!