UPD QAO holds 2025 Q4 QA Clinic

  • Written by: Czarina Joy B. Arevalo and Kelvin R. Mendoza
  • Photos and Layout by: Michelle S. Lagare, Arlyh F. Hirao, and Michael I. Baguisa
  • October 8, 2025
SDG 9 - Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
SDG 17 - Partnerships for the Goals

The UP Diliman Quality Assurance Office culminates its internal quality assurance activities with its Quarter 4 Quality Assurance (QA) Clinic, bringing together 42 participants across 29 Degree-Granting Units (DGUs). Held on November 17, 2025 at the UP Diliman Electrical and Electronics Engineering Institute (EEEI), the QA Clinic was attended by academic unit heads, faculty members, research and administrative staff, and QA officers across the academic clusters.

In her Opening Remarks, UPD QAO Director Aura Matias emphasized the importance of quarterly check-ins, “We believe that the only way to help our QA officers as well as those that lead the QA activities is to conduct clinics for QA Officers to become better aware, help you in the enhancement of your roles as QA Officers by sharing best practices, having the forum to share your concerns and problems that probably others can possibly dealt with and share best ways of approaching certain concerns or deterrence that can be improved.”

Director Aura Matias delivers her message during the Q4 QA Clinic.

This quarter’s QA Clinic featured the sharing of Post-External Quality Assurance (EQA) assessment activities from the perspective of two of our degree-granting units:  Assoc. Prof. Maria Criselda Badilla, Ph.D., Director of Academic Affairs and former QA Officer of the Asian Institute of Tourism (AIT) and Prof. Rowena Grace Sanchez, Ph.D., Chairperson of the Department of Food Science and Nutrition (DFSN), College of Home Economics (CHE), for their undergraduate and graduate programs, respectively.

Associate Professor Badilla shares the AIT BS Tourism Program’s AUN-QA journey

Dr. Badilla shared that AIT BS Tourism Program’s AUN-QA journey has been long, highlighting major lessons in 2023. “Teamwork is important. QA work is teamwork. It’s important to have the support of the dean or the head of the unit,” emphasized Dr. Badilla. Engaging all major stakeholders and focusing on what matters are lessons derived by the Asian Institute of Tourism. “Once you’re certified, it’s just the beginning. QA does not end with certification. It’s just the beginning; real work happens after the certification,” Dr. Badilla stressed in her discussion. Their Post-EQA activities include revision of the BS Tourism Curriculum; formation of the Industry Advisory Council; closer ties with the UP AIT Alumni Association; series of workshops with staff, faculty, and students; focused benchmarking with international universities; and UN TED QUAL Certification. Lastly, Dr. Badilla reflected on their QA journey and culminated her discussion, “When we started knowing what it [Quality Assurance] was for, we realized that it was the way to go: that someone else would tell us we’re good, rather than just us telling us we’re good.”

Professor Sanchez shared MS Food Science Program’s Post-EQA Assessment Planning journey

According to Dr. Sanchez, the CHE-DFSN has already begun a series of meetings for the academic assessment system report. This is before the 2018 BOR approval on QA of the University. In 2016, the DFSN achieved the IUFoST International Standard in Food Science Course Curricula and was later recertified, and has met the International Guidelines in Food Science and Technology Programmes of Study in 2022. 

Sharing the graduate program journey of the MS Food Science Program, their Revision Framework served as a springboard for the college’s international assessment activities. The MS in Food Science program successfully completed its AUN-QA Programme Assessment. “Since the heart of [the] AUN-QA assessment is the program, we focused on the revision and curricular review of the MS Food Science Program,” Dr. Sanchez shared during her discussion. Part of their Post-EQA Activities includes curriculum revision, CHE Faculty Conference 2024, DFSN Post AUN-QA & Post-iAADS Workshop. 

According to Dr. Sanchez, college alignment with EQA principles, dedicated QA research assistants, diverse funding sources, and committed faculty and staff are what worked for their department.

The last topic discussion for the Q4 QA Clinic was given by Deputy University Librarian Eimee Rhea Lagrama, where she shared fundamentals on Academic Records Management. 

“As administrators, decision-making and policy writing are expected of them, that is why I want to focus on the basic concepts when it comes to decision-making, policy writing that will affect the way we handle records,” she discussed during the training which is tailored to fit administrators because there is a different expectation for administrators regarding records management, and a different expectation when you are a staff.

Deputy University Librarian Lagrama served as a resource speaker in the Q4 QA Clinic on a hybrid session.

Also serving as the ex officio Secretariat of the UPD Records Management Committee (RMC), she introduced the committee and shared their vision, “As with all records management programs, we all want to have a good and effective program that will allow us to function more efficiently.” 

After the series of lecture discussions, the Open Forum was conducted to address questions on AI in records management, conduct of an ethics review for EQA data gathering, funding sources, among other questions from the participants. “We are still on the journey. We have not reached our destination yet,”  Director Matias shared QAO’s aspirations on the continuity of the establishment of QA structures in the university, strengthening our QA initiatives, and furthering our curriculum reviews.

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Participants actively raised their questions after the series of lecture discussions.

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