THE UNIVERSITY recorded a slightly lower passing rate in the recent licensure examinations for architects, with only three Thomasians entering the top 10 list of passers.
UST posted a 78.71-percent passing rate with 122 passers out of 155 Thomasian examinees making the cut, results from the Professional Regulation Commission showed. This was a tad lower than last year’s 79.9 percent, wherein 174 passed out of 220 examinees.
Among the 122 passers this year, 99 were first-time takers.
Leading this year’s batch of new Thomasian architects is Khimberlyn Soriano, who landed on the fourth spot with a score of 84.1 percent.
Other Thomasians in the top 10 are fifth-placer Rodney Aaron Zheng (83.9 percent) and Jepram Rey Villafranca, who shared the sixth spot with Aldrin Cuarto of the University of the Philippines-Diliman with identical scores of 83.8 percent.
Last year, five Thomasians made it to the top 10. Among those who passed were former Varsitarian managing editor John Ernest Jose and former photographer Karla Mides Toledo.
The Mapua Institute of Technology-Manila emerged as the top-performing school this year after recording an 82-percent passing rate, equivalent to 41 passers out of 50 examinees. The PRC requires at least an 80-percent passing rate and a minimum of 50 examinees to be declared a top-performing school.
This year’s national passing rate went up to 54.99 percent, or 793 passers out of 1,442 examinees. This was higher than last year’s 52.41 percent, in which 816 out of 1,557 examinees made the cut.