University of the Philippines Open University

Weird name. Why have university twice?

Anyway, they offer many distance education programs, some of which seem to be fully online. These include the Doctor of Communication and the Doctorate in Sustainability.

https://www.upou.edu.ph/academics/

 

Brian: Well, I'm off to State Tech Ag Central College Tech.
Stewie: There's really two techs in there?

 

I browsed the Associate in Arts course listings. This isn't for everyone. The first two or three required courses appear to teach about life and culture in the Philippines -- in Tagalog only. Other courses in English.

Sample: "Ang pampulitika, pang-ekonomya, panlipunan, at pangkalinangang pagsulong ng Pilipinas." (The political, economic, social, and welfare advancement of the Philippines.) Jenny, a very nice lady who is a cashier at the supermarket, is teaching me one or two words of Tagalog at a time. It's gonna be a while before I can handle University work.

 

Having no TV for years and years I didn't even know who Brian and Stewie were, so I looked them up. Kinda wish I hadn't. Now I know why I gave up TV. This is pretty awful stuff - even for around here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_&_Stewie#:~

I'm shocked, I tell ya -- shocked. No TV Wasteland for me - keeping my radio - welded on Jazz-FM - and maybe Colecovision... and yeah -- PONG!

 

The weird name arises because University of the Philippines is an umbrella organization composed of constituent universities. The Open University is one of such constituent universities.

 

We just got offered a dean's position. The Department of Redundancy Department. I'm not sure we're going to take it, though. We haven't decided.

 

It still doesn't make sense. There are many open universities that don't use "university" twice. The University of the West Indies (UWI) is a university system too, but it doesn't call itself The University of the West Indies Open University. Instead, it's The University of the West Indies Open Campus. They also have UWI Mona (Flagship campus, Jamaica), UWI Cave Hill (Barbados), UWI St. Augustine (Trinidad & Tobago), and UWI Five Islands (Antigua & Barbuda).

Perhaps The Philippines could have used the University of the Philippines Open Campus or The Open University of the Philippines.

 

Perhaps. But maybe it doesn't sound 'Pinoy' enough for the homeland. I could always ask Jenny.

 

adjective

1. relating to the Philippines or the Filipinos.
   "a Pinoy dish"
   

noun

1. a person of Filipino origin or descent; a Filipino.
   "the team was met by local officials and fellow Pinoys wanting to lend their support"

 

Here in Canada, we have University of St. Michael's College, which is a constituent college of the University of Toronto. They identify their institution as "University of St. Michael's College in the University of Toronto."

 

There used to be a diploma-printing outfit (or maybe it's still around) that sold degrees from United States University of America. A little much, I think - but it sold well overseas in some quarters. I remember seeing a pic from Romania.

There is also The American University, USA, which is, of course, a genuine school. The American University has campuses in other countries as well.

 

A guy calls a law office. There, a guy answers with "Schwartz, Schwartz, Schwartz, and Schwartz, may I help you?"
Caller: Please let me talk to Mr Schwartz.
Phone: I'm sorry, but he's in a meeting right now.
Caller: Then let me talk to Mr Schwartz.
Phone: Oh, he's retired.
Caller: Fine, how about Mr Schwartz?
Phone: I'm sorry, but he's on vacation.
Caller: Well, what about Mr Schwartz?
Phone: Speaking.

-- Henny Youngman

 

And UWI is joining the "Global Campus" wagon.

The University of the West Indies (UWI) says its Open Campus will now be known as the Global Campus.
https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20230802/uwi-rebrands-open-campus

 

I don't care for that. I think Open University/Open Campus implies something very different than Global Campus. I can see people think it sounds modern so maybe that's why the shift.

 

It doesn't seem to be about a modern shift. It appears they want to attract students globally.

Their mission might be changing to not only focus on the Caribbean.

We anticipate that the Global Campus will be a major pillar in the revenue revolution phase of our Triple A Strategy as through aggressive entrepreneurial activity it takes our excellent programme offerings online to the regional and global academic markets,” said Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles.

 

William Ruto, Ph.D., President of the Republic of Kenya, today awarded charter to the Open University of Kenya (OUK).
https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/realtime/2023-08-03-ruto-awards-charter-to-open-university-of-kenya/

OUK: https://ouk.ac.ke/

 

The pic showed the diploma and its owner, who was either the late Florin Cioaba or his father, Ioan Cioaba, also deceased. I forget which. Both were of Roma ethnicity and were both, in turn, self-proclaimed "Kings of the Gypsies."

Father here: https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1997-02-28-1997059079-story.html
Son here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florin_Cioabă

Roma are a fascinating people, who left their native Northern India about 1,000 years ago. They are much-maligned and often persecuted. About 250,000 died in Hitler's camps in WW2 as part of the Holocaust. The Romani language has a word for Holocaust - porraimos.

I've read that Roma comprise 70% of the jail population in Hungary. Hmmm. It reminds me of a statistic from American prisons:
Percent of Black Americans in the general U.S. population: 13% + Percent of people in prison or jail who are Black: 38% +

I think both scenarios likely contain a multitude of wrongs and injustices inflicted on those prisoners.