THE UNIVERSITY has the highest number of programs with a “Center of Excellence (COE)” and “Center of Development (COD)” status among private institutions based on the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) accreditation.
UST has a total of 13 COEs and 11 CODs, making UST the private institution with the highest number of accredited programs.
Eleven programs were added to the University’s roster of programs with the COE status while six programs were declared as COD programs based on a CHEd memorandum released last Dec. 23, 2015.
The new COE programs are Hotel and Restaurant Management, Travel Management, Medical Technology, and Pharmacy while Chemical Engineering and Psychology were upgraded to COE from their COD status.
UST’s Communication Arts, Information Technology and Library and Information Science programs have recently acquired the COD status.
Biology, Chemistry, Medicine, Nursing, and Philosophy retain their COE status while Physical Therapy, Literature and Journalism maintained their COD status.
Only state-run University of the Philippines-Diliman bested the University with 28 COE accredited programs.
UST is followed by fellow private Catholic institution De La Salle University with 20 accredited programs while Ateneo de Manila University and University of San Carlos shared the third spot with 15 accredited programs respectively.
According to the CHEd website, programs with the COE and COD tags are granted priority in the selection of institutional partners in CHEd development projects, graduate scholarships for faculty members and research subsidies.
The University’s Pharmacy program has the lone distinction of having the COE status, while the Journalism and Physical Therapy programs enjoy recognition of having the sole COD status in their respective fields.
“This is another attestation to the quality of education that the University provides to the public,” College of Rehabilitation Sciences Dean Cheryl Peralta said in an e-mail to the Varsitarian.
However, Department of Journalism Chair Jeremaiah Opiniano said the COD status does not have a huge implication, and that the UST Journalism program still has a long way to go.
“The Philippines has 32 journalism schools, many of which do need help improving their programs and activities or even their teachers. But what is important is that UST Journalism must be more active in being more helpful to the Philippine Journalism sector,” Opiniano said in an interview.
The CHEd memorandum also validates the COE status of Teacher and Music education until March 31 to give the commission ample time in completing their evaluation of COE and COD applicants. The same case applies with the University’s Engineering programs.
UST also has the most number of accredited programs in the country by the Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities Commission on Accreditation, a private accrediting agency on educational institutions, with a total of 37 accredited programs.
