Asian Journal of Education and Social Studies

Aims: This study aimed to determine the extent of operational risk management practices and degree of resilience of selected higher educational institutions in the Philippines. This study also addresses the limited empirical evidence linking operational risk management and institutional resilience in higher education, particularly in the Philippine context.

Study Design: This study utilized the quantitative approach using descriptive, comparative, and correlational designs.

Place and Duration of Study: This study was conducted at selected higher educational institutions in the Philippines, specifically Bacolod City, Manila, Cebu City, and Cavite City, from January to June 2025.

Methodology: This study employed a quantitative approach, specifically descriptive design, to determine the extent of operational risk management practices and degree of resilience of selected higher educational institutions in the Philippines as assessed by the administrators when the schools are taken as a whole and grouped according to student population, number of employees, annual operational budget, number of accredited programs, and years of existence.  The comparative design was utilized to determine whether a significant difference exists in the extent of operational risk management practices and in the degree of resilience of the selected higher educational institutions when they are grouped according to institutional variables while the correlational design was used to assess whether a significant relationship exists between operational risk management practices and school resilience.  Stratified random sampling was used to determine the 96 from the total of 127 administrators of the selected higher educational institutions in the Philippines located in Cebu, Bacolod, Manila, and Cavite who would participate in the study. Descriptive, comparative, and correlational analyses were employed to answer the specific problems of this study. The Mann-Whitney U test was used to test significant differences while Spearman rank correlation was employed to determine the relationship between operational risk management practices and resilience.

Results: There is a great extent of operational risk management practices across selected higher educational institutions in terms of risk identification, risk assessment, risk measurement and mitigation, and risk monitoring and reporting. There is a higher-than-average degree of resilience across the said institutions in terms of continuous improvement, leadership involvement, resource management, and process standardization and flexibility.  The results further showed that there is no significant difference in the extent of operational risk management practices and degree of resilience of the schools when they are grouped according to student population, number of employees, annual operational budget, number of accredited programs, and years of existence.  However, there is a significant relationship between operational risk management practices and school resilience.

Conclusion: Higher education institutions in the study demonstrate a generally high level of resilience across key areas such as leadership involvement, continuous improvement, resource management, and process standardization. Data further revealed that leadership engagement and organizational capacity—measured through variables like institutional age, size, student population, and financial resources—are significant factors contributing to resilience and effective continuous improvement practices. Larger and more established institutions tend to excel due to their formalized processes, broader human resources, and richer infrastructural assets.  Notably, institutions with limited resources can still achieve high resilience through strategic leadership, adaptive cultures, and innovative practices. Younger institutions, while performing well, have room to accelerate their development by formalizing processes and building institutional memory, akin to their legacy counterparts