The Dumaguete campus of the Asian College of Science and Technology is gearing up for certification from the International Standards Organization.
Rene Sol Calumpang, director of Acsat Dumaguete, said the process of accreditation will take about eight months, during which they will refine their system to be more consumer-focused.{{more}}
The school held a press conference last Tuesday to announce the start of their ISO certification process.
“But we cannot yet announce our quality management policy. This is only to give you a taste of what will happen after eight months,” said Bong Galapon, ISO consultant for Acsat, said.
Galapon promised to “parade all [products] later on” after eight months.
For the school to become ISO-certified, Acsat will have to position itself as a service industry. “We will market Acsat as an educational institution providing quality education. The provision of knowledge is a form of a service,” Galapon said.
This, he said, is a move that seeks to define what quality education is all about.
The school will define academic excellence in two measures. The first is through the academic performance of its students and the second is their migration rate. “We will embrace that student and see to it that that student will graduate,” Calumpang said.
To help students graduate, Calumpang said they are working to increase scholarships through the recruitment of more donors and sponsors, as well as through the scholarships offered by government agencies like the Commission on Higher Education and the Technical Skills Development Authority (Tesda).
“We will also help our students improve their focus,” she said. Calumpang said Acsat maintains a close relationship with the parents and informs them if their students are late or absent every grading period.
Aside from that, we need to motivate our students that there are a number of placements ready for them. We have a lot of partners and we have openings in Singapore, Canada, UK, and the United States. Through this opportunity, the students could be motivated to finish their studies,” she said.