Accreditation in the Philippines:A Case StudyVictor and Gina
OrdonezIntroductionAs countries progress along the development
trajectory, the availability of a competent human resource base
becomes a determining factor of progress.Countries progressing from
an agricultural economy to a manufacturing economy to a
technological and knoledge economy recognize that an ade!uate
supply of higher education graduates is a necessary pre"condition
forachieving and sustaining advanced levels of development in this
globalized, competitive, fast"changing orld, as the tiger economies
of Asia have proven. #ntil about thirty years ago the $hilippines
boasted a ell"established higher education system that provided
relatively democratized access for over a century, enrolling
proportionately more students than all but five countries in the
orld.%rom the &'()*s to the present, hoever, as many other
countries itnessed phenomenal higher education groth rates,
enrollment rates in the $hilippines did not.+ore alarmingly,
contrary to prevailing economic isdom here higher ratios ofhigher
education graduates ithin a population is meant to correlated ith
improved economic development, this seemed not the case in the
$hilippines here many graduates seem ill"prepared to handle the
comple, orkforce demands of the modern orkplace.One symptom is the
performance deficit of graduates in various national licensure
e,ams certifying entry to various professions.-n e,ams of the
-ntegrated .ar given by the /upreme Court, for e,ample, only 012 of
candidates pass the e,amination.%or teaching candidates the pass
rate for the national 3icensure 4,aminations for 5eachers 63457
e,amination, is just 8&2 and for accounting graduates taking
the Certified $ublic Accountants e,am only 092.&
Another symptom:4mployers and the business community in general
have arned that an inade!uate supply of ell"trained and prepared
graduates is limiting the performance ofthe business system, and
forcing a donard projection in e,pansion plans.%or e,ample, leaders
in the service outsourcing industry, an area of projected rapid
groth, complain that outof every &)) applicants for call center
operator positions, only to have ade!uate skills; and managers of
these centers are even harder to come by.0 Clearly the !uality of
higher education is a matter of national concern.5he challenges in
assuring orkplace preparation and !uality have figured largely in
the evolution and development of the accreditation movement in the
$hilippines.5he right balance beteen government regulation, private
sector"led accreditation, and adaptation to the re!uirements of
the& %rom reports of the Commission on osario, ?r, $resident ,
+anagement Association of the $hilippines, in paper on @$hilippine
.usiness and 4ducation.A +ay, 0))1e,isting ork environment should
be constantly monitored.-t is in this conte,t that various efforts
at establishing accreditation for !uality have evolved.The
Philippine Higher Education System:Context5he $hilippine higher
education system evolved much earlier than its Asian neighbors.
-tsfirst universities date to the seventeenth century, founded by
the /panish colonizers to educate a local ruling elite that ould
serve as its surrogates. Bith the arrival of its American
colonizers in the early tentieth century, the education system as
somehat democratized at all levels, encouraging democratic access
and private initiative..y the &'C)s, the hundreds of higher
education institutions had developed, mostly religious or private
in nature, a pattern that persists to the present in a
systemcomprised of &0C public universities and colleges, and
&8)) private universities and colleges.5he !uality of these
institutions varies idely. Bhereas a handful are orld class,
ranking in the top C)) universities of the orld,8 others are little
more than glorified high schools.Very fe, or sometimes none, of the
graduates from these poorer institutions pass national
credentialing e,aminations. >esponsibility for governing this
system as located for many years ithin the +inistry or =epartment
of 4ducation, in a .ureau of