THE OFFICE for Student Affairs (OSA) has introduced multi-year accreditation for student organizations, allowing them to receive official recognition for up to three years compared with the single-year accreditation granted in previous years.
Student organizations may now receive full accreditation spanning either three years, two years, or one year, depending on the organization’s performance and compliance with requirements, according to an OSA resolution dated Aug. 19 and signed by Asst. Prof. Jaezamie Ong, officer in charge.
This change streamlined the recognition process for student organizations, and trimmed down the number of classifications to four from last year’s 10.
Eight student organizations were classified under Group A and granted full accreditation for three years: Tomcat, UST Unesco Club, UST Volunteers for Unicef, UST Yellow Jackets, Architecture Network, United Architects of the Philippines, Asian Studies Society, and the Physical Therapy Society.
These organizations must hold general and year-end assemblies, organize two major activities, engage in community service, submit proof of participation during the recruitment period, and ensure involvement in OSA and UST activities.
To maintain the status, they must submit a liquidation report for every activity, a summary of receipts and disbursements, and an activities monitoring form at the end of each year.
Two-year full accreditation was granted to 121 mostly college-based organizations listed under Group B. These organizations met the documentary requirements and followed recognition rules but failed to conduct certain activities required last year.
They must also submit the same documents as those in Group A annually to maintain their status.
Twelve student organizations were listed under Group C and granted accreditation for one year.
Organizations granted one-year accreditation, or probationary recognition, were either new organizations or returning organizations that had been suspended, denied recognition, or were inactive for one to four years.
Student organizations that had failed to comply with all required activities last year were also placed in Group C and under probation for a maximum of two years, according to the OSA resolution obtained by the Varsitarian.
The petition for accreditation of 10 student organizations was marked pending for failure to attend activities initiated by the OSA, send representatives to the Leadership Training Seminar, or complete required documents.
A total of 129 out of 156 student organizations received full accreditation status for Academic Year 2024 to 2025, exponentially higher than the 14 organizations fully accredited last year, when the majority of organizations (122) had probationary accreditation.
The revised accreditation process marked the first major policy revamp of the OSA after the TomasinoWeb incident, which prompted the creation of a committee tasked to review student-related policies. Carlo Jose H. Ruga
