History
The Office of Population Studies (OPS) was founded by Dr. Wilhelm Flieger, SVD, a University of Chicago-trained demographer and one of the pioneers of the field here in the Philippines. Fr. Flieger established OPS in 1971 as USC’s response to the government’s call for more involvement of the academe in national development through population and related research. OPS was created to address the lack of population research in the Visayas. Since then, it has established itself as one of the major research institutions in the country doing research on population, health, and development. In early 2005, OPS became a foundation with the University President as its President.
Mission
OPS conducts training, research, and extension service on population-related issues with the purpose of clarifying and enhancing knowledge, and contributing to local, regional, and national development initiatives.
Thrusts
serve the academic and development needs of the Visayas region
give emphasis to disciplinary diversification in population studies
contribute to capability development in population studies
promote the utilization of research in development programs
ensure evidence-based advocacy in population-development concerns
strengthen linkages with local and foreign partners
Resources
OPS has a qualified pool of researchers and affiliates as well as state-of-the-art computing facilities. Aside from its professional staff of population specialists, OPS maintains an administrative and support staff for training activities and for extensive collection, processing, and analysis of survey data. OPS has its own network of computing facilities and supports a variety of statistical software, database, graphics and office-suites programs.
OPS has geographic information system (GIS) capabilities and is offering short-term training programs with emphasis on social science applications.
It has capabilities for collecting biological markers for intergenerational and life course health assessment.
Office
Situated inside the University of San Carlos Talamban Campus, the OPS has its own building consisting of two floors of research and office space and a library.
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