CHED renews autonomous status of USJ-R

CEBU CITY–The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) granted the University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R) two more years to be autonomous.

This means that USJ-R can implement changes or make new course offerings without the approval of CHED until 2021 according to VP Academics Rev. Fr. Leo Alaras, OAR.

“Once the School Board approves, we only need to inform CHED,” he said.

Once the granted status is about to expire, CHED conducts a reevaluation if a school should be granted a renewed autonomous status.

A Philippine academic institution that has been identified as a university can further be classified depending on the level of control CHED has on them. The autonomous status is the highest in the vertical typology. In order to be granted the said status, CHED evaluates two areas: (1) commitment to excellence and (2) institutional sustainability and enhancement. Each of these areas has its own set of criteria.

During the assessment conducted by CHED in 2019, Alaras said that USJ-R performed well in the areas of research and having a number of Centers of Development (COD) and Centers of Excellence (COE). Moreover, he said that the university’s ISA certification helped.

ISA stands for Institutional Sustainability Assessment (ISA). It is an internal quality assurance tool for Higher Education Institutions (HEI) in the Philippines. According to the official website of CHED), it is designed to get the HEI to look at and reflect on its outcomes while recognizing the importance of quality inputs and evaluate its performance against its vision, mission, and goals.