THE COMMUNICATION Arts (CA) program of the Faculty of Arts and Letters (AB) is now a center of development (COD), as declared by the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd).
As per CHEd Memorandum Order No. 38, the University of Santo Tomas (UST) is now at par with Miriam College and Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU) in terms of accreditation status for CA, while the University of the Philippines (UP) remains the sole Center of Excellence (COE) in the said area of study.
Meanwhile, the Philosophy program is still the only COE in AB. For the Philosophy program, UST shares its standing with ADMU, followed by the University of San Carlos.
Moreover, the Journalism and the Literature program retained their COD status, while UP Diliman holds the COE status for both disciplines, sharing the latter with ADMU (Department of English).
Aside from Philosophy, UST has 12 programs declared as COEs, namely: Biology, Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, Hotel and Restaurant Management, Medical Technology, Medicine, Music, Nursing, Pharmacy, Psychology, and Teacher Education.
The other eight CODs in the University are Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Electronics Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Information Technology, Library and Information Science, Mechanical Engineering, and Physical Therapy.
Centers of Excellence refer to higher education institutions which demonstrate the highest level of standards in instruction and research of their particular fields; whereas Centers of Development are disciplines which have significantly improved over the course of the previous years.
The designation of the said COD and COE status is valid for three years, from Jan. 1, 2016 to Dec. 31, 2018, or until sooner revoked for non-compliance with CHEd guidelines, the memorandum read. F – Gaea Katreena C. Cabico
