Former UP System VPAA Dr. Maria Cynthia Rose B. Bautista is SU’s commencement exercises speaker
Dr. Maria Cynthia Rose Banzon Bautista is a member of the Advisory Council of the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM II) and the Board of Trustees of the Philippine Institute of Development Studies (PIDS). She is the immediate past Vice-President for Academic Affairs of the University of the Philippines System. In her stint as UP Diliman (UPD) Professor, she led various multi-disciplinary, inter-institutional, and international research teams in exploring a wide range of social and political-economic concerns. She also served as long-time executive director of the University Center for Integrative and Development Studies, the UP System’s policy research unit, and dean of the UPD College of Social Sciences and Philosophy before her secondment to the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) as Commissioner from March 2012 to September 2016.
Beyond UP and CHED, Dr. Bautista served on the Advisory Board, Management Board, Board of Trustees, Executive Board, and Executive Committees of various institutions that include the National University of Singapore’s Asian Research Institute, the Human Development Network, the Asian Scholarship Foundation, the ASEAN Quality Assurance Network (AQAN) and the UNESCO Regional Committee for the Recognition of Higher Education Qualifications in Asia and the Pacific. She was Senior Advisor for Phase 5 of the ASEAN Qualifications Reference Framework ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand-Free Trade Area Economic Cooperation Support Programme.
Dr. Bautista also chaired the Executive Board of the Philippine Social Science Council, the UNESCO National Commission’s Social Sciences and Humanities Committee, the Regional Task Force on the ASEAN Qualifications Reference Framework (AQRF), which shepherded the Framework through its finalization and endorsement by the ASEAN Economic, Education and Labor Ministers; the Expert Working Group on the Qualifications Framework of the European Union’s Support to Higher Education in the ASEAN Region (EU SHARE) and the Board of Trustees of the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation.
For her work, Dr. Bautista has received several awards. These include the National Research Council of the Philippines’ Achievement Award for the Social Sciences; the UP Alumni Association’s Professional Achievement Award; the Outstanding Women in the Nation’s Service (TOWNS); the National Academy of Science and Technology’s (NAST) Outstanding Young Scientist Award and the NAST Outstanding Publication Award.
Dr. Bautista obtained her BA degree from the University of the Philippines in Diliman (magna cum laude) and her MS and Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Silliman University will hold its 112th University Commencement Exercises on May 18, 2025, beginning with a Baccalaureate Service at 7:30 AM, at the SU Church, followed by the Graduation Ceremony at 2:00 PM, at the SU Gymnasium.
