The study was done to identify the research capability of higher educational institutions (HEIs) in the Philippines. Primarily meant to help the CHED Zonal Research Centers nationwide in planning activities that would address capability/expertise gaps within their respective domains, in a macro perspective, it was also meant to guide HEIs nationwide in choosing subject/field areas of research to concentrate on and developing institutional and regional research policies.
This involved 369 HEIs nationwide which offer graduate programs. Data were gathered through a structured questionnaire of which the retrieval rate was 80.76% (298 HEIs).
Results revealed that of the 298 respondents-HEIs nationwide, 92.95% have undertaken research and development activities for more than 20 years (range of less than 1 year to more than 30 years). However, it was found out that only 22.81% of the faculty on the average were involved in research in spite of the fact that most HEIs give incentives in the form of publication of research outputs, attendance to local/national/international conferences, honoraria and research load credits.
In as much as budget allotted for research was found to be at most 10 percent of institutional funds, most of the HEIs utilized funds coming from other sources, i.e. government or private research / funding agencies.
Most of the researches undertaken by HEIs were in the fields of Education and Teacher Training (75.17%). Other fields were on Social and Behavioral Sciences, Mathematics and Computer Sciences, Business Administration and Natural Sciences. The least researched areas were Fine and Applied Arts, Architecture and Town Planning, Law and Jurisprudence. In SUCs however, Agriculture and Forestry were the most researched areas.
It is largely believed by HEIs nationwide that assistance is much needed in the following areas of concern: research team development, evaluation of research, dissemination of results, research ethics and legal constraints. Sources of funding for research remains to be on top of the list of concerns of HEIs.
