The Faculty Summit was opened by University President Danilo Concepcion. COVID-19 will later on be endemic and according to the President, UP will have to start planning for the next normal–health protocols, retrofitting of facilities, capacity-building programs, and review of the implementation of degree programs among others. He also announced that blended learning and thinking-based instruction will be adopted by the University. Vice-President for Academic Affairs Bautista then laid down the contours of higher education beyond the COVID-19 pandemic such as the lifelong learning education pathways, structure of study, different modes of course delivery, different types of assessment, and curricular changes that academic units may adopt. She also shared the next-generation pedagogy for online and blended higher education described as IDEAS—Intelligent, Distributed, Engaging, Agile, and Situated (Whitthaus, G., et.al., 2016).

Results of the faculty and student surveys on the gradual re-opening of campuses conducted in November and December 2021 were shared by Prof. Evangeline Amor, Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs in charge of Curriculum and Instruction, and Prof. Richard Gonzalo, Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs and Director of the Office for Student Financial Assistance, respectively. Majority of the faculty and student respondents are willing to participate in face-to-face (F2F) activities provided that fellow faculty, students, and staff who will join these activities are vaccinated. However, it is important to note that these surveys were administered prior to the January 2022 COVID-19 (omicron variant) surge.

The Faculty Summit kicked off the planning of the University’s roadmap to the next normal. VPAA Bautista said that consultations on the roadmap with education experts and faculty will be conducted throughout the semester. This will also be the subject of a faculty conference that will be held back-to-back with the knowledge festival. She assured the faculty that this roadmap recognizes the different ways of teaching and learning in all clusters of disciplines.

Being the health sciences unit of the university, UP Manila started the conduct of face-to-face (F2F) classes as early as June 2021. Dr. Bhabita Murjani of the College of Dentistry presented the preparations, protocols, and experiences of UP Manila in conducting F2F classes. She was then followed by the sharing of plans for the safe return to campuses by the Vice-Chancellors for Academic Affairs of the six (6) residential constituent universities: Prof. Rosemary Gutierrez (UP Baguio), Assoc. Prof. Patricia Nazareno (UP Cebu), Prof. Ma. Theresa Payongayong (UP Diliman), Prof. Jean Loyola (UP Los Banos), Asst. Prof. Leo Manuel Estaña (UP Mindanao), and Prof. Philip Ian Padilla (UP Visayas). The Faculty Summit was capped off by an open forum.