USC Now ISO Certified
Photo by Ronald Jufrey Milan
The university reaches yet another educational milestone once again after being recognized as a premier learning institution. The administration, faculty, student support staff gathered with accrediting bodies at the Michael Richartz Conference Center to witness the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) award 9001:2015 certification to the University of San Carlos on Sep. 25, 2017.
ISO is an international federation of national standards composed of over 100 countries that deliberate and agree on a standard and specification to be followed by every member countries to ensure quality, safety and reliability.
To this end, the ISO 9001:2015 for Quality Management System has been conferred to USC for satisfying set standards that signify continuous development.
Headed by the Office of Student Affairs (OSA) in the behest of the administration, members of the Supreme Student Council (SSC), collegiate councils and other student organizations were compelled to be in attendance.
The event formally commenced with a para-liturgy organized by the Campus Ministry. Engr. Christine Marie Gohetia, master of ceremonies, briefly gave an insight that the certification is the fruit of the labors of the administration for the past three years. She hinted that the certification validates the ongoing improvement undertaking of the university. “We have been working on a while for this [certification]. This has been what we were looking forward to,” she said.
Fr. Generoso Rebayla, SVD, Vice-President for Administration, delivered the welcoming remarks for the ceremony. He began by citing that USC has recently made headlines for the successful achievements of topnotchers and 100 percent passing rates in the bar and board examinations. He further mentioned that the quality of student support services affect the quality of education offered by the university. “We seek accreditation in our [student support service] processes to improve the student experience while in campus.”
Thereafter, Irish Dakay, MIE, ASEAN Engineer and presidential assistant for quality assurance, delivered the rationale and study presentation. She mentioned that USC has submitted itself to various external quality assurance bodies as a means of improving the quality of student support services. To name a few, Philippine Association of Accredited Schools, Colleges and University (PAASCU), Commission on Higher Education (CHED), Philippine Technological Council (PTC) are among the accrediting bodies USC is a member of. With respect to Circulation Memorandum Order (CMO) – 46, an emerging standard mandated by CHED, USC has attained an autonomous university status.
The awarding ceremony then followed and was spearheaded by Femelyn Lati, General Manager of TUV- SUD Philippines. She congratulated the administration for setting the standards of education in terms of quality management system. University President Fr. Dionisio Miranda, SVD, received the certificate of appreciation for both Talamban and Downtown Campus that the university has satisfied the criteria for ISO 9001: 2015 Quality Management System. All Student Support Office Units received awards for partaking of the ISO certification of the university.
The event then proceeded to Renan Maglasang introducing the launch of Caloy, an interactive student assistant. He is a system developed to further improve the student experience, a project funded by CHED Institutional Development and Innovation Grants (IDIG). Caloy can locate buildings, update news and announcements from the university, provide information on student services such as job placements, health and wellness and much more. The pilot unit will be installed at the Lawrence Bunzel Building.
With the mission of continuously improving the student experience, the ISO 9001: 2015 certification of the university only validates the efforts undertaken by the administration to foster quality education. This award will serve a vantage point for other schools to also improve their services as well.
