Tag: No. 5

THE UNIVERSITY has maintained its position as the educational institution with the most number of accredited programs in the country.

UST received five awards during the 26th annual general assembly and awarding ceremonies of the Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities Commission on Accreditation (Pacucoa) last Dec. 1 at the City of Dreams in Parañaque.

UST was awarded for having the highest number of Level III and Level IV accredited programs in the Philippines, and for having the highest number of accredited programs in both the National Capital Region and in the country.

The University was also cited for having the first food technology program to be granted Level IV accredited status.

THE UNIVERSITY grabbed the top spot in the recent licensure examinations for teachers (LET) both in the elementary and secondary level, with one Thomasian entering the top 10 in the elementary level.

UST was declared the top-performing school in the elementary LET after obtaining a 96.21 percent passing rate. A total of 127 passed the test out of 132 Thomasian examinees.

In the secondary level, UST posted a 94.92 percent passing rate, with 168 Thomasians making the cut out of 177.

SOON, class records and teaching modules will be available in the “cloud.”

The Educational Technology Center (EdTech) is set to upgrade to cloud services and virtual classroom technology as part of a digital transition.

EdTech Center Director Anna Cherylle Ramos said using the cloud would make it easier to store digital academic resources.

Cloud storage is a mode of digital data storage that keeps a user’s data available and accessible with the help of computer networking.

Ramos warned of the vulnerability of digital resources stored in servers inside the UST campus.

FILIPINO Catholics may celebrate what they brag to be the longest Christmas holidays in the world, but they seem averse to the worldwide persecution of Christians, especially those right in Asia Minor where Christ was born.

In the Middle East, a Christian dies every five minutes, according to a report by the Catholic News Agency. Vatican analyst and journalist John Allen wrote that 11 Christians are killed per hour, per day, for the last 10 years. The situation has since escalated due to the increasing Islamic extremism in the area.

YOU REAP what you sow. The biblical saying has a bearing on how Filipinos have invested their time and money on television, the so-called boob tube. After nearly two generations for example of brainless noontime shows, trite melodramas, and innocuous entertainment, the Philippines has become a nation of shallow entertainment and circus freakdom.

The shallowness has become so unremitting that there have been attempts even among the intelligentsia and even the Catholic establishment to defend the so-called “Dubsmash” duo of one TV network as harmless, pure entertainment, even defending that the segment promotes and revives traditional Filipino morals, as if this part makes up for the fact that the show revolves around silliness and stupidity.

IN THE thick of the fast-moving world, do Filipino families really take the time to just sit down and have a calm dinner on an ordinary night? Is there real connection between parents and children today or is it all superficial?

For the past years, it would seem like only during special occasions like the eve of Noche Buena and Media Noche are most tables in every home filled to the brim with endless supply of food and conversation.

I FIND it worrisome that many of my peers consider late nights until early mornings as the time they become most productive.

More and more friends in my Facebook chatbox are marked “online” when I stay up until 4 a.m. and the line between “because it is finals week” and “because I was lazy” is becoming hazier by the minute.

I am not safe either, I fail to meet deadlines.

DESPITE recognition as a premiere Philippine university, UST still needs to improve its curriculum and offer niche programs to attain international standards for quality education.

Office of International Relations and Programs Director Lilian Sison said upgrades and changes in the curriculum as well as additional scholarship programs were needed to maximize opportunities for students.

“There should be something done in the curriculum for global learning so other students get exposed,” Sison said.

IN A HOUSE sitting in a maze of shanties not too far from the heart of Imus is Francisca Solmerano, the city’s “hilot” for more than five decades.

Soon she will be among local healers to be accredited by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).

The Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (PCHRD) of DOST has partnered with the Philippine Institute for Traditional and Alternative Health Care (Pitahc) to launch a P100-million program that will seek to certify traditional healers in 2016.

Launched last August, the program will consist of a five-year survey and a comprehensive research on traditional medicine, with details still not specified by the organization.

A UST professor’s work in the field of taxonomy and systematics has earned him a prestigious scientific award.

Grecebio Alejandro, director of the Office of Graduate Research, was awarded the Gregorio Y. Zara Achievement Award for Basic Research for his contributions particularly in Plant Molecular Phylogenetics

Established in 1968, the Gregorio Y. Zara award is the brainchild of the family of National Scientist Gregorio Zara and the Philippine Association for the Advancement of Science and Technology (PhilAAST).

The annual award seeks to recognize the achievements of the country’s most outstanding scientists in two fields: one in the field of Basic Science Research, and another for Applied Science Research.