Earn it first

By Herman M. Lagon

There is a certain awkwardness you cannot quite shake off when you are in a graduate classroom and have nothing to say. I learned this the hard way. My first attempt at postgraduate life was an MBA, entered with only my newsroom instincts, a press ID, and the hope that writing about business would somehow make me understand it. My classmates could dissect supply chains like surgeons. They could map cash flows in minutes. During case analyses, they argued over capital structures while my best move was a clean lead. I listened, scribbled like a beat reporter, and quietly wished I had a story of my own to contribute. I did not.

Years later, I found myself back in graduate school, but this time in a master’s program in guidance, followed by a PhD in educational leadership. I walked into those classrooms from actual classrooms—fresh from admin chores, teaching, counseling, faculty meetings, and parent conferences. Suddenly, the conversations were alive. I could connect theories to students I had taught, policies to meetings I had survived, and frameworks to problems I had wrestled with in real time. My classmates, equally seasoned in their fields, turned discussions into deep, anchored exchanges. It was not brilliance that changed the game. It was mileage.

This is why I believe higher education institutions in the country should look seriously at field experience as a qualification—not just a footnote—for master’s and doctoral programs. It is not about gatekeeping; it is about enriching the academic table so everyone brings something substantial to the feast. Imagine a graduate seminar on instructional leadership where half the room has never managed a class, much less a school. The dialogue becomes theoretical at best, shallow at worst. In contrast, when everyone has wrestled with the realities of their profession, the learning deepens for all.

In countries like the United States and the United Kingdom, many professional master’s programs already set this standard. Executive MBAs expect five to ten years in a managerial role. Mid-career public administration programs prefer applicants with substantial service under their belt. Doctor of Education programs often require leadership experience. The principle is clear: advanced learning thrives when informed by lived practice. Even here, the best teacher education programs benefit from participants who have handled chalk, markers, or LMS dashboards before tackling a master’s thesis on pedagogy.

The value is not just academic. Field experience equips students with a sharper sense of direction. When experienced people in their field start graduate school, they know exactly what skills they need to learn and what gaps they need to fill. Research from Top Universities (2023) shows that having a job helps people focus on their career objectives and learn better by connecting theory to practice. It also helps students identify research topics grounded in reality rather than those plucked from abstract curiosity.

In the local setting, this is not just a matter of academic culture but also of respect for peers’ time and effort. Graduate school is a group activity; the learning environment is built by talking, sharing, working together, and even disagreeing. If you enter without the right experience, you might take more than you give, which can be unfair to classmates who are trying to balance their work and personal lives. It also impacts professors, who must recalibrate lessons when some students cannot yet connect theory to practice.

That said, experience does not have to mean decades in the field. A few years of relevant experience—like directing a business unit, managing a health program, leading a school program, or doing field research—can make all the difference. If the person is really doing the job, even volunteering or interning can qualify. The most important thing is that the graduate student comes not as a clean slate, but as someone who has struggled with the job and lived through its problems.

For educators, this conversation is urgent. Too often, teachers pursue graduate degrees straight from undergrad, pushed by hiring requirements or salary increments, without enough time to absorb the craft. They graduate with diplomas but without the grounding that could have made their advanced learning transformative. If we want our master’s and doctoral programs to shape leaders, not just credential holders, we must make space for—and even encourage—that interim period of work. The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and universities can take cues from the field-specific models abroad while crafting policies suited to our context.

This is not to discourage those eager to continue studying. For some professions, immediate progression is necessary or strategic. But for many, pausing to gain experience is not losing time; it is investing it. My own detour from the MBA to years in the classroom before returning for my master’s and PhD made the difference between enduring graduate school and enjoying it. I learned that confidence in those rooms comes not from grades or titles, but from the stories, solutions, and scars you carry in.

The best graduate classrooms I have joined have felt like newsroom debates—lively, specific, and full of receipts. The worst have been like silent book clubs, where everyone stares at the same case handout, waiting for someone else to go first. The difference is not in IQ points, but in life lived before the classroom. If our higher education system wants richer conversations, sharper research, and more relevant leadership, it must value the wisdom that comes only from stepping into the field before stepping back into school.

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Doc H fondly describes himself as a “student of and for life” who, like many others, aspires to a life-giving and why-driven world grounded in social justice and the pursuit of happiness. His views do not necessarily reflect those of the institutions he is employed or connected with.