Evaluators from the Federation of Engineering Institutions in Asia and the Pacific (FEIAP) visited the Faculty of Engineering last October 6, 2016. The evaluators were Prof. Chew Yong Chan of the Institution of Engineers, Singapore and Engr. Lee Boon Chong, Vice-President of the Institution of Engineers, Malaysia. They were accompanied by Engr. Federico A. Monsada and Engr. Mel Dennis Ferrer, President and Deputy Executive Director, respectively, of the Philippine Technological Council (PTC). Officials of the Faculty of Engineering led by the Dean, Prof. Philipina A. Marcelo, Ph.D., hosted the FEIAP and PTC visitors in a meeting at the Rector’s Hall.
The PTC is a member of FEIAP, on behalf of the Philippines. It now seeks recognition as an accreditation body by FEIAP. The visit to UST was held to evaluate the Certification and Accreditation System for Engineering Education (CASEE) of PTC. As such, the evaluators may also serve as nominators of PTC to FEIAP. As UST is among the very first private Institutions whose six Engineering Programs were accredited by PTC, starting AY 2015-2016, PTC recommended the visit to UST for the FEIAP evaluators-nominators to gather information regarding the conduct of CASEE by PTC. Dean Marcelo discussed the experience of UST in going through the CASEE accreditation process in a presentation, starting from the two-year preparation leading to the on-site visit, and PTC’s monitoring of Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) activities for each Program after granting accreditation. The rest of the Engineering officials participated in the CASEE-related discussion and data-gathering conducted by Prof. Chan and Engr. Chong. As part of the data gathering, Engineering facilities were also inspected by the FEIAP evaluators.
If successful, Engr. Monsada said that “PTC’s recognition as an accreditation body under FEIAP could enable graduates from PTC-accredited engineering programs to meet the educational base requirements for registration under the APEC Engineers Registry and other global engineering registries”. As Engr. Monsada pointed out, “this expands the jurisdictions in which the graduates’ qualifications may be recognized,” then PTC-CASEE’s recognition by FEIAP is expected to provide greater opportunities to engineers in the country who graduated from PTC-accredited Programs.
Also present during the visit was Dr. Lydia G. Tansinsin, the Chairperson of the Accreditation and Certification Board for Engineering and Technology (ACBET), and an alumna of UST Department of Chemical Engineering. UST is one of the four Institutions visited by FEIAP. The others were the University of the Philippines-Diliman, Technological Institute of the Philippines – Quezon City, and Adamson University.
