The ingredients to VSU’s Level III Institutional AACCUP Accreditation

Details: Published: 17 May 2017

The Board of Accreditors of the Accrediting Agency of Chartered Colleges and Universities in the Philippines (AACCUP) has awarded VSU a Level III Re-Accredited status, a step shy of the highest accreditation level an academe can achieve.

After earning a mean of 4.31 out of 5, the AACCUP Board granted VSU a Level III status. During the first-round of institutional accreditation in 2010, VSU was awarded a Level II status.

AACCUP rated VSU based on criteria in nine areas including governance and management, teaching, learning, and evaluation schemes, faculty and staff development programs, research, extension, consultancy, and linkages. Support to students, library facilities, infrastructure and other learning resources, and quality assurance culture were also evaluated.

Teaching and learning, research, and extension were among the areas that received high praise from AACCUP.

Research and extension

A rating score of 4.64 for the area on research programs is the highest VSU had achieved. This is attributed to more than a hundred penned agreements and academic cooperation that VSU had forged with national and international funding institutions from 2011 to 2016, the Lead Accreditor for Research Dr. Luzviminda Rodrin reported.

The number of well-cited journal articles of VSU researchers, and IP stocks for five years since 2011 were among the identified strengths that brought VSU a high rating.

AACCUP lauded VSU’s “effective and efficient delivery of extension services.”

“There is close collaboration between the university and the community in the implementation of extension projects,” reported Dr. Maria Glenda de Lara and Dr. Divinagracia De Guzman, lead accreditors for Extension.

Teaching and learning

VSU’s teaching, learning, and evaluation schemes received a rating of 4.52 owing, for the most part, to its programs in Agriculture, Agricultural Engineering, and Development Communication. These programs were respectively identified as Centers of Excellence, and Center of Development by the Commission on Higher Education.

AACCUP also commended VSU for its incentive system for licensure examination top notchers and high-performing academic departments.

VSU’s Level III Institutional Accreditation took effect on April 1, 2017, and will remain valid until March 31, 2022.