PHILIPPINE CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY

GRADUATE PROGRAM STUDENTS SHOULD INSERT

THEIR STATEMENTS, RESPONSES AND/OR ANSWERS
DIRECTLY AFTER THE INSTRUCTIONS AND GUIDE QUESTIONS BELOW:

TITLE OF THE PROPOSAL:

NAME OF MEMBERS: 1.
2.
3.

I. THESIS / DISSERTATION PROPOSAL FORMAT

A research proposal outlines the contents of a scientific, social or economic investigation that a
researcher desires to undertake, say, within 12-24 months following the submission of the
proposal.
It should be organized following the format presented below with the required headings and
order. All sections must be completed. The required word count is 1,600 – 2,200 words.

INSTRUCTIONS & GUIDE QUESTIONS STATEMENTS, RESPONSES & ANSWERS

1. INTRODUCTION
Provide an Introduction based on the
following:
a. the scientific, technological,
social, economic subject, topic, idea,
system, policy, trend, theory or practice
that the research desires to investigate;
b. the environment, industry or
sector which encompasses, or influences
or is impacted by the research topic;
[Word count: 100 – 150]
The bulk of sensitive personal data collected from
the employees and especially from students has
exponentially grown to a huge number. Sensitive
personal data include race, age, marital status, age,
color, health, education, genetic and sexual life, and
religious, philosophical or political affiliations.
Furthermore, sensitive information include social security
numbers, health records, licenses and tax returns. These
vast number of sensitive information needs to be
protected.
HEIs have exerted its efforts to protect sensitive
personal information, however, it is observed that a
number of violations had been committed while
processing and controlling sensitive information. Some of
the violations include improper handling of students’
information and students’ grades, exposed employees’
pay slips and tax returns, unlocked cabinets used for
records safekeeping. These are just some of the possible
deviations that may result to HEIs paying huge expense
to compensate complaints that may be raised to NPC if
policies on safeguarding sensitive information will not be
put in place.

According to Cruz (2021), the unauthorized

 processing of sensitive personal information carries a
possible penalty of one (1) to three (3) years of
imprisonment and a fine of not less than five hundred
thousand pesos (PhP500,000) up to two million pesos
(PhP2,000,000).

According to The Commission on Higher

Education (CHED) and National Privacy Commission
2. RATIONALE
(NPC) [1], all higher educational institutions (HEIs) must
Identify the real-world scientific, comply with the Data Privacy Law.
technological, economic, social,
business, organizational and human
problem that the research will try to National privacy commission (NPC) requires all
better understand and/or solve; Or the government agencies, private industries, educational
pervading Opportunities that the institutions and other organizations to comply with the
research will strive to identify and data privacy act RA 10173 of 2012. NPC had released a
explore.
general compliance checklist for data privacy (Perez,
[Word count: 100 – 150] 2019).
3. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES Research Objectives:
a. Identify the Researches’ potential
contribution to knowledge and its
implications to existing theory, General Objective:
methodology, practice, or any
combination thereof: The general objective of the research is to
develop a data privacy framework or policy/ies for HEIs
i. Re-contextualization of an existing
theory or method, applying a
technique in a new context, testing Specific Objectives:
theory in a new setting, showing the
applicability of a model to a new The main objective can be realized thru the
situation, and evaluating the result following specific objectives:
and any implications.
ii. Corroboration and elaboration of an - to identify critical offices handling personal and
existing model (e.g. evaluating the
effects of a change of condition; sensitive information;
experimental assessment of one - to conduct assessment on the current situation
aspect of a model). of HEIs in terms of data protection;
iii. Falsification or contradiction of an - to create a data privacy checklist applicable for
existing model, or part of one. academic institutions; and
iv. Drawing together two or more - to develop a framework or policy on data
existing ideas and showing that the protection
combination reveals something new
and useful.
v. Developing and testing a new
concept, showing that something is
feasible and valuable (or not) and
why.
Problem Statements
vi. Implementation of someone’s
framework or principle to some field
of practice, showing how it work and
1. What is the profile of the staff and administrators
its limitations. in terms of the following?
1.1 age;
vii. Empirically-based characterization
of a phenomenon (e.g. detailed, 1.2 gender;
critical, analytic account of the 1.3 position or rank;
evolution of an idea; detailed 1.4 length of employment;
analytic characterization of a crucial 1.5 type of work;
case study or a novel chemical
compound, or a new planet).
2. How do the respondents assess the security or
viii. Providing a taxonomy of observed data privacy of information they are handling in
phenomena.
terms of the following:
ix. Well-founded critique of existing 2.1 type of data;
theory or evidence (e.g. correlating 2.2 storage length;
the results of a number of existing
studies to show patterns or
2.3 client access;
omissions). 2.4 issuance of data or information;

3. How effective is the data privacy method

implemented in the HEIs Manila in terms of the
following as assessed by the two groups of
respondents:
b. Clarify your contribution to 3.1 data warehousing
knowledge by explaining the
following:
3.2 information drive
 x. The importance of the question. 3.3 information classification
Why is the question worth asking? 3.4 information sourcing
xi. The significance of the findings.
Why do these findings matter? 4. How significant is the difference in the
xii. What are their implications for assessments of the two groups of respondents as
theory, methodology, practice? to the effectiveness of the data privacy method
xiii. What are the limitations to implemented by the HEI Manila when grouped
generalization of the findings? according to their profile variables?
Research work is part of an ongoing 5. How significant is the difference in the
discourse among many researchers,
each critiquing the available evidence
assessments of the two groups of respondents as
and providing fresh argument and to the security of data privacy of information
evidence that contributes to knowledge handled by the HEI Manila with regard to the
and understanding. aforecited variables in question # 2?
Research involves questioning the
accepted wisdom (the obvious),
6. What are the challenges encountered by the HEI
examining and analysing phenomena respondents as to the data privacy
from a different perspective, and implementation?
investigated through a variety of
techniques. Research seeks to create 7. Based on the findings of the study, what threshold
new understanding of the world, using
new ideas and approaches, rather than
model can be proposed to ensure the HEI data
describing it using existing frames and privacy implementation?
tools.
NULL HYPOTHESIS:
As more evidence is presented, existing
explanations are re-evaluated. In this
way knowledge is constantly
reconfirmed, elaborated, revised, or
overturned.

Knowledge claims may be small and still

contribute to the discourse.

c. Identify how the research will

support and amplify the
achievement of relevant
development goals at the
personal, institutional,
community, governmental,
regional, national or international
levels.

d. Identify the professional

competences that will be gained
by the student.

e. Specify the type of research that

will be undertaken, e.g.,

i. Exploratory: provides initial insight

to a new situation, issue or
 phenomenon.
ii. Descriptive: classifies
phenomena… questions on who,
what, where, when and how
iii. Explanatory: explains a causal
relationship that is meaningful…
why questions
iv. Evaluative: assesses or measures
impact [assumes a causal
relationship]

f. Specify Research Questions and

Objectives

i. If your research is driven by policy

debates, describe the specific
aspects of these debates on which
your research will focus.
ii. If your research is driven by
theoretical debates, or apparent
omissions or inconsistencies in the
existing literature (theoretical or
empirical), what aspects of these
debates will you address?
iii. If your research focus is on the
nature of practice in some field
(e.g., business management or
science research), then what
aspects of practice will you explore
(e.g., managerial behaviour or
scientific discovery)
[Word count: 100 – 200]
4. LITERATURE REVIEW
a. Review the published literature,
where you show what has already
been proposed, claimed, or
established.
b. The review of literature is normally
comprised by theoretical and
empirical studies, policy and
industry reports, and articles
published in respected periodicals
and newspapers.
c. Summarise and evaluate the
usefulness of these previous
studies in relation to your stated aim
or research question.
d. Show awareness of the most
important and relevant theories,
models, empirical studies and
methodologies. A good literature
review will compare and contrast
theories and empirical results,
pointing out agreement and
disagreement, gaps and overlaps of
argument.
A poor literature review often simply
provides summarised lists of
theories and empirical studies, with
little or no attempt to compare,
contrast or evaluate these theories
and empirical studies.
e. Make clear how well these
published studies address your
research focus, by examining the
extent to which they provide insight
to, or answer, each of your research
objectives or questions.
f. Identify omissions or weaknesses in
the published literature that gives
you the opportunity to justify your
study and contribute new
knowledge.
g. Elaborate how your research will
contribute this new knowledge.
Depending on your intended research
design (next step) you may convert the
identified weaknesses and omissions
into hypotheses. A hypothesis is a
simple but testable statement that
proposes that one factor (call it A)
causes another factor (call it B) to
behave in a certain way.
[Word count: 600 – 750]
Review of Related Literature and Studies
The social media era created a lot of opportunities
to share and access information This technology also
allowed everyone to be updated and informed on a vast
area of concerns may it be about news or current events.
The vast amount of information available to everyone
created concerns on how one can carefully validating the
veracity of information. The internet is a big data-
warehouse of not only general information but also
information that can be identified as sensitive and
personal. The big question is on how we can protect the
information of every individual like in the case of
students. According to Zimbabwe Data Protection Bill
(2013), the protection of any natural person in relation to
the processing of their personal data is a fundamental
human right.
In 2015 there are more than 3 billion internet
users (Alashoor, T etal., 2017). The sudden surge of
internet users accessing different information increased
possibilities of individuals ones’ privacy. These include
not only violations against personal information but also
violations against sensitive information. Students’
personal and sensitive information are not excluded from
these. To protect these, the Philippine government
instituted a law to protect data privacy of all individuals.
Republic Act 10173 of 2012 otherwise known as Data
Privacy Law of 2012 is put in place to protect the privacy
of every individual.
“It is the policy of the State to protect
the fundamental human right of privacy, of
communication while ensuring free flow of
information to promote innovation and
growth. The State recognizes the vital role
of information and communications
technology in nation-building and its
inherent obligation to ensure that personal
information in information and
communications systems in the government
and in the private sector are secured and
protected.” (Data Privacy Act of 2012,
2022)
According to Stahl etal. (2016), the rapid adoption
of digital content and delivery systems, each with its own
capacity to track, store, and analyze student usage,
interactions, and academic outcomes at both a highly
detailed and granular level, has emerged as an area of
widespread opportunity, but also of concern. Various
student data sets (personal information, demographics,
achievements, medical records, race, ethnicity etc.) are
now available and now possible to be accessed as the
result of data interoperability standards. This has raised
the specter of dangerous and privacy-invading misuse,
simultaneous with the potential for customizing education
for every student.

Student data consisted of things like personal

information, attendance, grades, discipline records,
health records, religion and ethnicity. Traditionally access
to the data used to be restricted to the school
administrator, guidance counselor, teacher, or other
school official who needed it to serve the educational
needs of the students. With the advent of digitalization
and the use of technology in schools, students data is
now easily accessed and often shared with companies
that provide Student Information Systems (SIS), Learning
Management Systems (LMS), and many other
technologies. A number of concerns were raised by
parents and students. These concerns include
information that is being collected or shared, and what
are the purposes of why these data are accessed or
collected. Personal computers, mobile devices, apps,
websites, programs, and online services are commonly
used in learning institutions which further allowed new
data to be generated about individual students that never
existed before including drafts and edits as they are
recorded and showing the pacing and record of their
performance in their enrolled courses. Online classes are
conducted and oftentimes recorded. These collected
recordings further violate students’ data privacy.
Behaviors are recorded and collected, and often held by
third party educational technology vendors. “Teachers
are ethically obliged to follow and model good digital
citizenship practices and behaviors with their students.
This includes thinking carefully about the digital products
and processes that are incorporated in any project or
lesson design.” (Gallagher etal., 2017)
5. RESEARCH DESIGN Research Methodology and Design
Following your review of literature,
outline how you plan to go about This section contains the way on how the
collecting empirical data that will build researcher intend to accomplish the project. The
the understanding required to fulfil your methodology that will be used starts from gathering data
research aim, or test the hypotheses you about the existing data privacy policy of several Higher
have developed from your review of the
Educational Institutions.
literature. Describe how you will carry out
your study, referring to frameworks and
concepts found in the research methods Research Design
literature.
The researcher follows a structured phases in resolving
Specifically, this section must describe
concerns in the HEI regarding data privacy.
your Overall Approach and specific
Methods/Techniques of Data Collection.
You must also explain how you will Planning
analyse the data collected
(Methods/Techniques of Data Analysis), In this phase, the researchers carefully determine
what measures you are taking to ensure
on how data privacy is ensured in HEIs, identify the
the quality of your research design
(Research Quality Issues), and show an method of disseminating information making sure that
awareness of ethical considerations everyone is aware on the importance of protecting
around academic research (Research personal and sensitive information of both employees
Ethics Issues). and students. During this stage the researcher plans
carefully the different steps he needs to conduct in order
The proposal requires that you have
made firm arrangements with your target to find solutions to stated problems and objectives.
(e.g., the organization or community you
propose to study or work with) for access Data Gathering
to data prior to writing the proposal,
rather than describing that you plan to
In this phase, the researcher will thoroughly
seek access to your target after the
proposal is written. collect pertinent information from different departments
and offices regarding their conduct of protecting
a. Overall Approach. This will be either students’ personal and sensitive information. The
Qualitative or Quantitative, or some researcher will also use interview method from different
combination of the two. Describe
key personnel or administrators. Internet method will be
your particular Approach, e.g.,
ethnographic, case study, survey, or used to further gather information on government laws
experiment; and why the chosen and policies put in place regarding the protection of data
Approach is appropriate for the and information particularly governments implementation
study. of laws in the higher educational institutions. A survey
instrument will also be used to gather other data. The
b. Methods/Techniques of Data
Collection .The overall Approach is researchers will conduct a survey questionnaire to cover
broken down into specific the different aspects stated in the problem statements
methods/techniques of data and objectives of the study.
collection. For example a Qualitative
Approach can be broken down into
Survey Respondents
semi-structured interviewing and
observation, while a Quantitative
Approach is broken down into The respondents will include employees assigned in the
questionnaires, experiments, and different offices and departments of selected higher
others. Describe your chosen educational institutions. Students will also form part of
methods/techniques and explain why
the respondents. Random sampling will be used and a
they are appropriate techniques for
achieving your research objectives or significant number will be considered to make the sample
testing your hypotheses. size valid and representative of the study. Acceptable
margin of error will be 5%.
c. Methods/Techniques of Data Formula to compute the sample size for participants
Analysis. How will you analyse the particularly students.
data collected? Describe the
methods/techniques of data analysis,
for example the procedures you will
use for analysing text or quantitative
data or patterns (e.g., statistical
analysis).

d. Research Quality Issues. Explain

how you will ensure that you collect
the right data to address the
research questions or hypotheses, or Faculty members of the HEIs will also be included as
that the data you collect is reliable.
This requires some discussion about part of the survey instruments’ respondents.
the validity and reliability of your
data, and what triangulation
techniques have been employed to Statistical Treatment of Data
strengthen the validity and reliability
of your data. Your findings should
also be generalizable rather than A number of statistical tools will be used to show
only valid for the particular effectiveness of currently implemented data privacy
phenomenon you studied. You are policy in the HEI. A t-Test will also be used to measure
encouraged to check the meaning significance of the difference between the two groups
and relevance of these terms in any being studied. Likert scale will be used to show
research methods textbook.
percentile effectivity of different methods used to ensure
e. Research Ethics Issues. Does your data privacy is handled properly in the different selected
proposed research topic raise any HEI. Five options will be used i.e. Excellent, Very Good,
ethical issues? For example, does Good, Fair and Poor in the Likert scale. Weighted
your research design present any arithmetic mean will be used to interpret effectiveness of
possible danger to your subjects
(physical, emotional, professional)? If data privacy measures implemented by HEIs.
so what will you do to avoid that?

[500 – 700 words]


6. CONCLUSIONS
Summarise your proposal, including your
potential contribution to knowledge.
[200 – 250 words]
Conclusion
This study looks into improving ways of protecting the
data privacy of all individuals i.e. teaching staff, non-
teaching staff and students of higher educational
institutions in the Philippines. Data privacy has always
been a big concern in the education sector. Parents are
greatly concerned how the education community protects
the privacy of their children i.e. students’ address,
birthdate, race, religion, ethnicity etc. We are fully aware
that a number of cases have been raised regarding the
malicious practice in the distribution and use of pertinent
and important data of all members of the education
community. Republic Act 10173 had been passed as a
law way back 2012 but it had not been thoroughly
followed not only in the industry but also in the academe.
Thousands of complaints had been filed due to malicious
and erroneous use and distribution of data.
This study seeks to verify currently implemented
methods in protecting both personal and sensitive
information of all employees and students in HEI. It
further makes way in recommending methods and even
framework to make sure that implementation of policies
will effectively reduce if not eliminate violations regarding
data privacy. This study will generate recommendations
on how to efficiently and effectively protect students and
employees pertaining their data and information.
7. REFERENCES REFERENCES
Citing bibliographical references is
important for the following reasons:

a. It facilitates acknowledgment of Alashoor, T., Han, S. and Joseph, R.C. (2017),

documentary, digital and other “Familiarity with big data, privacy concerns, and self-
sources used to establish criticisms disclosure accuracy in social networking websites: an
and arguments; APCO
b. It enables other people to trace the
sources of ideas used in the Cruz, A. (2021). ……..
research.
c. It prevents the occurrence of
plagiarism because it identifies the Gallagher, K., Magid, L. and Pruitt K. (2017). The
original and legal authorships or
Educator’s Guide to Students Data Privacy.
attribution of the source document
and/or its research findings and ConnectSafely, Future of Privacy Forum.
ideas. https://www.connectsafely.org/eduprivacy/ (Accessed
http://www.stir.ac.uk/
April 12, 2022)
is/student/writing/referencing
suggests specific ways for doing this: Malipot, M. “Educational institutions told to comply with
i. “It is not sufficient merely to list a data privacy law”. Manila Bulletin. Available:
source in an appended bibliography, https://news.mb.com.ph/2017/05/27/educational-
or in the body of an assignment to institutions-told-to-comply-with-data-privacy-law/.
express a general indebtedness. To [Accessed September 21, 2019]
avoid a charge of plagiarism, all
debts must be specifically, precisely
and accurately referenced National Privacy Commission, “Republic Act 10173 –
in
accordance with good academic Data Privacy Act of 2012”. Available:
practice. https://www.privacy.gov.ph/data-privacy-act/#25.
ii. When a source is directly quoted [Accessed September 15, 2019]
word-for-word, the passage quoted
should be placed within quotation National Privacy Commission, “NPC Circular No. 18-02 –
marks or indented and the source Guidelines on Compliance Checks”.
accurately referenced, in
parenthesis, in a footnote, or in an
Available:https://www.privacy.gov.ph/npc-circular-no-18-
endnote, according to a recognised 02-guidelines-on-compli- ance-checks/
system. There must be no ambiguity
about where the quotation ends or Perez, M. (2019). ……..
begins.
iii. The source of any data cited (e.g. Republic Act 10173-Data Privacy Act of 2012.
figures, tables, charts) should be https://www.privacy.gov.ph/data-privacy-act/ (Accessed
made explicit. April 12, 2022).
iv. When ideas, or an argument, are
reproduced from a source in a Stahl, W.M. and Karger, J. J. D. (2016). Student Data
general or paraphrased way, the Privacy, Digital Learning,and Special Education:
source must be acknowledged.
Challenges at the Intersection of Policy and Practice.
v. Remember that these rules apply to Journal of Special Education Leadership.
all the different sources of
information you have used, for
Zimbabwe Data Protection Bill. (2013). The Zimbabwe
example: a lecture or tutorial, books,
journal articles, web Data Protection Bill Draft. Retrieved from
sites,
newspapers, a https://t3n9sm.c2.acecdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/0
television
programme, a friend's essay. 8/Zimbabwes-Draft-Data-Protection-Bill-v-1-June-
vi. If you think about where you found 2013.pdf
your information and reference your
work properly, then accidental
plagiarism can be avoided.”