As the official nominee of the University of Santo Tomas, Prof. Philipina A. Marcelo, PhD, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, was voted anew into the Board of Directors (2020-2022) of the Philippine Association of Engineering Schools, Inc. (PAES) during its 2020 General Membership Meeting (GMM) held virtually on December 4, 2020. The University of Santo Tomas shared the top spot with Mapua University, garnering the most number of votes from the official representatives of member schools in attendance. The GMM was held in conjunction with the 2020 International Conference on Engineering Education – Philippines (ICEE-Phil 2020), which was held fully online for the first time this year.
Dean Marcelo has been serving in the PAES BOD since her first Term as Dean of the Faculty of Engineering in November 2012 and served as PAES President from October 2016 to October 2018. “We are very happy to receive this vote of confidence for UST from our peers at PAES. We shall continue to work hard in the Faculty of Engineering to sustain this trust, and to show respect for this endorsement of leadership in Engineering Education in the country. And, as always, we shall include PAES in all our plans in the Faculty for the inclusive and continuous improvement of Engineering Education in the Philippines,” Dean Marcelo said.
On its first meeting, the PAES BOD elected officers, in which Dean Marcelo accepted the role of the BOD’s P.R.O. The Dean of the College of Engineering of Adamson University, Dean Evelyn Q. Raguindin, ASEAN Engr., will lead the BOD as PAES President in the next two years. The current PAES BOD is composed of the official representatives of Adamson University, Central Philippine University, De La Salle University, FEU Institute of Technology, Holy Angel University, Mapua University, National University, St. Louis University, Technological Institute of the Philippines, Technological University of the Philippines, University of Mindanao, University of the Philippines – Los Baños, and the University of Santo Tomas.
Marcelo, a chemical engineer by profession, has been at the helm of the country’s oldest existing engineering school for eight years now. During her tenure, she led the relentless effort to upgrade the Faculty’s offerings to international comparability, as attested to by accreditations and certifications from the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) and ASEAN University Network Quality Assurance Group. The Faculty’s programs also now enjoy full accreditation status by the local Philippine Technological Council and the Level III accredited status by the Philippine Accrediting Association of Schools, Colleges, and Universities.
Also during her tenure, Marcelo intensified the Faculty’s internationalization efforts and led the University’s first interantional dual-degree program offering, the Master of Science in Chemical Engineering, major in Metallurgical Engineering with Curtin University – Western Australia School of Mines. This program was followed by the offering of the joint Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering degree between UST and the Catholic University of America.
