THE UST College of Architecture is set to gain local accreditation from a local accrediting agency—a first since its establishment in 1930.
Architecture is set to be granted the Level I accreditation status by the Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities Commission on Accreditation (PACUCOA) for the period June 2015 to June 2018.
According to the PACUCOA website, Level I accreditation status grants “full administrative and financial deregulation in terms of setting of tuition and other fees and charges for three years.” It also enables authority to revise the curriculum without the Commission on Higher Education’s approval. Accreditation procedures include consultancy visits, preliminary survey visits, a self-survey, a formal visit, a reaccreditation survey visit, and assessment of requirements.
PACUCOA is a private accrediting agency that gives formal recognition to an educational institution by attesting that an academic program maintains excellent standards in its educational operations.
International accreditation
Architecture Dean John Joseph Fernandez previously said the college prioritizes international validation rather than local accrediting agencies like PACUCOA and the Commission on Higher Education.
Architecture targets two international accrediting bodies namely the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB) in the United States and Paris-based Union Internationale des Architectes (UIA). Fernandez said the college applied for NAAB in 2012 and acquired partial-equivalency status, a step before the program becomes fully accredited by the American board.
Moreover, if the college secures a spot in NAAB and UIA, UST will be a sitting member of the Canberra Accord—a “document that facilitates the portability of educational credentials of architecture graduates among the countries whose accreditation agencies signed the accord.” Jerome P. Villanueva
