THE SANTO Tomas e-Service Providers (Steps) scored the lowest satisfaction rating, in an annual “exit” survey, in the aftermath of the late release of last semester’s grades.
STePS, which is also in charge of the UST website, was deemed by students as the “most important” administrative office, scoring an average of 3.77.
Data from Office of Planning and Quality Management showed that STePS gained the lowest satisfaction score of 2.63, in a scale of zero to four, with the latter being the highest.
Fr. Arthur Dingel, O.P., assistant to the Rector for planning and quality management, attributed STePS rating to problems encountered by students on the UST website.
“It’s a good eye-opener for STePS, so next year, [it has] to do better,” said Dingel. “This also indicates that the survey is accurate, and the students are aware of the services given to them.”
STePS had drawn flak from students for the “inefficient” service of the MyUSTe Student Portal in releasing last semester’s grades, which the registrar’s office, the custodian of University records, blamed on colleges that submitted grades beyond the deadline.
STePS was the only administrative office that received a grade below 3.00 in key performance indicators used, equivalent to “Somewhat Satisfied” and “Moderately Satisfied.”
A rating of 4 means “Very Satisfied,” 3 means “Moderately Satisfied”, 2, “Somewhat Satisfied”, 1, “Not Satisfied,” and 0 “Not observable/not applicable.”
The Varsitarian tried to get comment from STePS concerning its ranking, but officials said STePS Director Fr. Winston Cabading, O.P. was out of the country. Other officials declined to comment.
Other administrative offices that scored higher than STePS are the Office of Public Affairs (3.06), accounting office (3.11), UST security office (3.27), Office of the Secretary General (3.31), and the Facilities Management Office (3.38).
In the support services category, health services scored lowest with a 2.83 average, followed by the Educational Technology Center (EdTech), facilitator of the UST e-Learning Access Program (e-Leap), with 2.83, student services (3.01), Miguel de Benavides Library (3.06), registrar’s office (3.1), and guidance counseling (3.21).
UST Health Service Director Dr. Ma. Salve Olalia attributed her offices’ low scores to students who did not undergo minor operations such as tooth extractions and nursing care.
“It is understandable why we fared poorly because these students did not avail [themselves] of these (health services) since these were not needed,” Olalia said.
Health services also got low ratings of 2.99 to 2.68 for the question “the clinic staffs attend to my cares promptly.”
Olalia said the Health Service has its own regular survey in which her office consistently gets requests from students for additional doctors, nurses, and clerks.
“This can be tied with the poor rating regarding prompt service,” she said. “We have notified the administration officials about these concerns, and they are exerting best efforts to address these.”
In the academic services category, the College of Rehabilitation Sciences (CRS) scored the highest rating of 3.30.
“One of the things that keep the students satisfied with our academic service is that we have a listening ear,” CRS Dean Jocelyn Agcaoili said.
CRS conducts its own satisfaction surveys every after its first shifting exam called a “formative evaluation,” at the middle of every semester, and a “summative evaluation” at the end of every semester. The survey also revealed students from College of Tourism and Hospitality Management would “most likely” recommend UST to their peers. The electronics engineering program of the Faculty of Engineering came out as the “highly recommended” course in the University followed by accountancy, and medical technology.
The annual exit survey was conducted from March 16 to April 10 with a total of 23,340 respondents. The survey has been expanded to all year levels from only graduating students in previous years.
Students from the colleges of Accountancy, Science, Rehabilitation Sciences, Tourism and Hospitality Management, Architecture, Fine Arts and Design, Commerce, and Nursing, together with the faculties of Pharmacy, Arts and Letters, Engineering, Medicine and Surgery, and the Conservatory of Music, participated in the assessment.
“The students should always expect a better service to keep us motivated to become innovative,” Dingel said. “We will not only be forced to do something better than this year, but we will be inspired because the fact that they expect something from us means that they believe that we can do it.” Charmaine M. Parado with reports from Kalaine Nikka Kay C. Grafil
successful enrollments + non stop technical services + easy cashiering system + wi-fi ready campus + smooth internet connections in all offices = lowest satisfaction rating..???
think about it?…is the Office of Planning and Quality Management credible enough for such data?….or its head is too envy because he is overshadowed by the steady performance of all the steps personnel staff..think about it!..
“its an eye-opener!hahhaa?..”maybe he should apply it for himself.
steady performance? successful enrollments? i didn’t see it before i answered the survey. Last academic year, we always had problems with the downtime error thing in eleap. It’s awful especially when we were given online quizzes and assignments and it’s most awful when we’re in the middle of the quiz then suddenly there’s a technical problem. Every quiz has a time limit that’s why technical problems are absolute waste of time and could be reasons of attaining low grades!
We also had difficulties accessing our grades. Yes, we don’t want to see our grades because it’s one of the bitter realities in our lives but there are times that we have to know it as early as possible so that we’ll know if we passed or not. And there are schedules of the viewing of grades that they didn’t follow.
Successful enrollment?
oh yes, perhaps it was a real success for us because everytime we get enrolled we feel a sense of achievement after falling in line for three to five hours.
And why are you questioning the credibility of office for planning blabla, they just conducted the survey but we’re the ones who answered it based from our own awful EXPERIENCES.
Sorry to say this but I think the results are good because I find it realistic.
and I also hope that surveys could work as an “EYE OPENER” for people like you who doesn’t know or understand what we are experiencing.
is this what you call efficient? (link here)
successful enrollments + non stop technical services + easy cashiering system + wi-fi ready campus + smooth internet connections in all offices = lowest satisfaction rating..???
think about it?…is the Office of Planning and Quality Management credible enough for such data?….i don’t think so
TO BV:
First of all, ELeap is not under STEPS. It’s under Edtech. Also, You accessed your grades using the ELeap website (which is also under Edtech), right? Topic here is STEPS. By the way, do you even know the difference between Edtech and STEPS? And I also think that the schedule for grades viewing is dictated by the Registrar’s Office and not from the technical people. Please know your facts first before you react.
honestly, i don’t know the difference. im sorry. but i guess, a lot of students doesn’t know the difference between the two because as for me, i thought: techie-ust-thing=steps. :p im so sorry. but i still don’t understand why office of planning etc is blamed about the result because we, passive or misinformed students, are the ones who answered it, not any office. they just conducted it, in other words, they just gave us the site and we answered it. im so sorry about that. and thank you so much.