UST’S passing rates dropped in the recent “off-season” electronics engineering and chemical engineering boards, with no Thomasian entering the respective top 10 lists.
The University posted a 75.61-percent passing rate in the electronics engineering exam, with31passers out of 41 examinees. This was lower than last year’s 81.3 percent, wherein 59 passed out of 71 examinees.
Three of eight first-time takers and 28 of 33 repeaters passed this year’s exam.
Despite the decline, UST’s performance was not “humiliating” compared with other engineering schools, Faculty of Engineering Dean Josefin de Alban Jr. said.
“In fact, other schools congratulated us for our overall passing rate,” De Alban said in an interview.
Citing the Professional Regulation Commission’s (PRC) full text of official results, he noted that some schools got higher passing rates but had few examinees.
Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology recorded a higher score of 81.82 percent, but had only 22 examinees. Mapua Institute of Technology, which bagged six spots in the top 10, posted a 65.98-percent passing rate, with 128 out of 194 examinees making the cut. State-run University of the Philippines (UP)-Diliman, meanwhile, got a 100 percent passing rate, but had only 27 examinees.
The national passing rate rose to 53.55 percent, with 1,439 passers out of 2,687 examinees. Last year’s national passing rate stood at 44.97 percent, with 1,107 out of 2,602 passing the test.
There was no top-performing school this year, since none met the PRC’s requirement of at least an 80-percent passing rate and a minimum of 50 examinees. UST was the top-performing school in last year’s licensure exam.
In the off-season chemical engineering boards, only 13 out of the 26 Thomasian takers, or 50 percent, passed the test.
Last year’s passing rate was 55.88 percent, in which19 out of 34 examinees passed.
All four first-time takers from UST passed the exam, while only nine out of 22 repeaters passed.
“What we look after in [terms of] performance is the November examinations, when more Thomasians take the exam,” De Alban said. “It is also when all examinees are first-time takers.”
Like in the electronics engineering licensure exam, no school met the requirement set by the PRC to be declared a top-performing school.
The national passing rate went up to 51.96 percent, with 199 successful examinees out of 383. Last year’s passing rate was 47.15 percent, with only 157 passers out of 333 examinees.