Clarence M. Batan, PSS Vice-President, and member of CHED’s Technical Committee for Sociology was newly-appointed as director of the Research Center for Culture, Education, and Social Issues (RCCESI) of the University of Santo Tomas. Clarence now leads the more than 50 Thomasian faculty members in pursuing researches in the fields of arts, culture, humanities, education, and the social sciences.

Current RCCESI projects cover wide-array of interests such as various orientations in philosophy; heritage and conservations studies; literary and cultural studies; language studies; inter-generational studies;  economics, business, and finance; education and leadership studies; and contemporary social issues including studies on the environment, migration, peace, politics, and policies. The center also serves as a social research arm of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.

Under Clarence’s leadership, the RCCESI hopes to evolve a new “culture of research” that encourages active participation, involvement, and engagement of faculty members in research-related activities in UST and across universities locally and abroad.