SCHOOL officials and students of the University of Northeastern Philippines eagerly anticipate the arrival of accreditors from Metro Manila this coming Monday, December 3, 2007, for the long-awaited and twice-postponed visit of the Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities Commission on Accreditation (PACUCOA).

Caption: The UNEP 2010 Administration Team at the University Accreditation Room.

        The seven member delegation is composed of Dr. Jaime Buzar as chairman and in-charge for areas covering Purposes and Objectives, Organization and Administration, Dr. Florante Garcia for Faculty, Instruction and Laboratories (Liberal Arts), Dr. Donato Gallego, Faculty, Instruction and Laboratories (Business Administration), Dr. Meriam Garcia, Faculty, Instruction and Laboratories (BSE & BEED), Engr. Ronald La Torre, Physical Plant and Facilities, Ms. Gloria Ruzgal, Library and Dr. Corazon Quintana for Student Personnel Services and Social Orientation and Community Involvement.

        While the list of the accreditation team may still change at the last minute, the seven areas of assignment will remain the same. For the university it presents an anticipated event mixed with excitement as the institution validates through the visitors the effort it has gone through in its desire to further upgrade its quality of service to the education sector in Iriga City and Rinconada District.

        UNEP is gunning for its Level II reaccredited status in three major academic areas, particularly the Colleges of Liberal Arts, Education and Business Administration. A green light in all three Colleges/Department means it is now ready to move up to a Level III Accreditation at the appropriate time.

        Accreditation is the formal recognition of an education program as possessing high level of quality or excellence based on the analysis of the merits of its educational operations in attaining the educational institution’s objectives and its role in the community that it serves.

        There is a legal basis for this whole exercise and one must go back to a year before the declaration of Martial Law in 1970, when the Presidential Commission to Survey Philippine Education (PCSPE) submitted the policy recommendation to improve and strengthen higher education. One of the recommendations encouraged school to join or organize accrediting agencies and that a federation of accreditation agencies be established.

        This recommendation was referred to as the Integrated Reorganization Plan (IRP). Presidential Decree No. 1 approved and adopted the IRP. Presidential Decree No. 1 and PD No. 1200 (NEDA five year plan) both provided that accreditation shall be one of the strategies to achieve educational and manpower development goals.

        Cognizant of this concern UNEP has launched its own medium term development plan to further improve its service capability and quality of instruction with its 2010 target date. DEA/OSS