THE UNIVERSITY of Santo Tomas is seeking another institutional certification from the ASEAN University Network Quality Assurance (AUN-QA) this year as it undergoes the agency’s institutional assessment, which will evaluate its strategic quality assurance system through interviews and site inspections.
AUN-QA assessors, composed of eight professionals from five Asian countries, will evaluate the University in three different criteria, namely management, functional and systemic quality assurance.
From Oct. 6 to 10, AUN-QA’s chief assessor and Indonesian lecturer Yu Un Oppusunggu will lead the evaluation for the management criteria in the agency’s 17th institutional assessment. He will be joined by two other assessors, Prof. Yahaya Md Sam and Nguyen Huy Phuc.
The functional criteria will be assessed by the co-chief assessor, Assoc. Prof. Ornsiri Cheunsuang, together with assessors Prof. Wan Ahmad Kamil Mahmood and Prof. Satria Bijaksana.
Meanwhile, the University’s systemic quality assurance will be evaluated by lead assessor Eric Wibisono and assessor Tan Chin Hon.
The last institutional assessment in UST was held in 2019. The following year, UST became the second university in the country to receive recognition from AUN-QA after passing four areas in the assessment, namely strategic quality assurance, systemic quality assurance, functional quality assurance and results.
The University was also the first associate member of AUN-QA to receive an institutional certificate, on top of its 18 accredited undergraduate programs.
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The 2025 institutional assessments form part of AUN’s five major initiatives to create an impact in ASEAN higher education.
Among the initiatives are the Internal Quality Assurance Toolkit Development, which looks into the internal operations of institutions; and the AUN-Qualifications Excellence, which aims to elevate the quality of higher education in Southeast Asia through enhanced qualification networks.
Other initiatives are the English as Medium of Instruction Enhancement that strengthens the capability of universities to deliver outputs in standard English; and AUN Digital Transformation network that introduces a “one platform, one protocol” approach to universities’ digital management. F
