Monday, Feb. 6, 2017
The University of San Jose-Recoletos forged a partnership with the American University of Sovereign Nations (AUSN) for “academic scholarly exchange” and “collaborative articulation.”
USJ-R President Fr. Cristopher Maspara OAR signed the agreement with AUSN President Dr. Darryl Macer last Feb. 3 to “mutually promote cooperation and scholarly advancements in the fields of education, academic research, bioethics, public health and medicine, indigenous peoples and peace.”
“We’re very honored to have the agreement,” said Dr. Macer, whose AUSN, an American post-graduate university, is based in Delaware and Arizona States.
“We hope that this relationship would eventually lead to the development of trained faculty in the university to perhaps open a bioethics department or open a bioethics program eventually because I think that’s a great need in the Philippines,” he added.
Bioethics is the ethics of medical and biological research.
The agreement will facilitate exchanges and visits among staff and members of both academic institutions.
It also encourages joint activities including research and joint academic publications in areas of interest to the respective parties; and joint conferences, seminars and workshops of mutual interest to the two schools.
“I am really enthusiastic about this linkage because I believe this will forge not only research collaboration with other AUSN faculty and students, but we are also hoping to have faculty exchange,” said Dr. Agnes Sequiño, director of the university’s Center for Policy, Research and Development Studies (CPRDS).
“This is something that would help us grow professionally,” added Dr. Sequiño, who also signed as witness to the agreement, along with Dr. John Weckert of the Australian Charles Sturt University.
Dr. Macer and Dr. Weckert were in the university for a series of lectures on the importance of establishing an Ethics Review Board from Jan. 3- to Feb. 4.
“For having an institutional research ethics review committee, the university will protect its community from potential oversights by overzealous researchers, potential oversights by researchers who come from one discipline who didn’t really think carefully about their research,” he said.
CPRDS invited the two esteemed professors of bioethics after a teacher and students of an institution of higher learning based in Cebu faced criminal complaint filed by Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) for violation of RA 9147, or the Wildlife Resources Conservation and Protection Act.
The biology students and their teacher are facing serious raps at the Department of Justice after killing an animal endemic to Cebu as part of their study. By IPA
