During the opening ceremony of the inaugural UP Diliman QAhusayan Fair 2026 held on September 7, 2026, Dean Dina C. Magnaye, presented the transformative journey of the School of Urban and Regional Planning (SURP) as a world-class academic unit of the University of the Philippines. Her keynote address, titled “Strengthening Systems, Uniting People, Reimagining Processes, and Propelling Impact: SURP Quality Journey from Commitment to Excellence,” detailed how SURP actively operationalized its strategic vision to position itself as a globally recognized and quality-assured center for graduate education, research, and governance across Southeast Asia and the Asia-Pacific. Central to the School’s transformation was the implementation of the Enterprise Performance and Evaluation Scorecard (ePES), a numerical assessment framework that monitored SURP’s operational milestones, consistently exceeding annual performance targets and rising from an 80% rating in 2022 to a 93% achievement rate in 2025.
School of Urban and Regional Planning Dean Dina C. Magnaye delivered the keynote address during the opening ceremony of the QAhusayan Fair.
A central theme of the keynote address was that true quality extends far beyond regulatory compliance, audit checklists, and static paperwork. Dean Magnaye emphasized that achieving sustainable excellence requires moving past records maintenance to instill a proactive culture centered on evidence-based continuous improvement. To operationalize this mindset, UP SURP grounded its strategy in its core values—Selfless Service, Unity, Respect, and Passion for Purpose and People—while executing the six foundational principles: leadership, academic program integration, evidence-based practices, continuous learning, people-centricity, and public engagement. The School standardized its internal administrative systems by aligning Individual and Office Performance Commitment Reviews (IPCR/OPCR) with its multi-year business plans, restructuring core course syllabi under Outcome-Based Education (OBE) frameworks, establishing standardized thesis, job, and competency manuals, and maximizing previously underutilized institutional data.
This collective approach enabled the school to attain the Level I of the Philippine Quality Award (PQA) entirely through internal alignment and capacity building without relying on external consultants. This distinction made SURP the first degree-granting unit in the entire UP System to earn PQA recognition, awarded on July 17, 2024 at the Heroes’ Hall, Malacañang Palace. SURP’s journey offers a concrete and highly replicable blueprint for academic units across UP Diliman, demonstrating that high-level quality assurance standards are achievable while maintaining academic independence and relying on native talent.
Rather than treating accolades as a final destination, UP SURP views its quality milestones as stepping stones toward broader global impact. Looking ahead, SURP is directing its strategic priorities toward full curricular revisions for all graduate programs, building retrofitting, and qualification for international benchmarks such as the Global Performance Governance Systems Recognition and the Global Performance Excellence Awards (GPEA) under the Asia Pacific Quality Organization. Moreover, its Master of Arts (Urban and Regional Planning) program is poised to undergo assessment through the ASEAN University Network-Quality Assurance (AUN-QA) in June 2027.
By framing quality as an everyday working standard rather than a temporary demonstration for evaluators, SURP sets an inspiring precedent for the broader university ecosystem. Its success serves as both a roadmap and a call to action for other colleges to move past bare-minimum compliance, harness their own internal data, and cultivate a shared culture of excellence across Ultimately, SURP’s journey stands as a powerful reminder that honor and excellence are not static ideals to be evaluated, but daily practices to be lived.
UPD QAO Director Evangeline C. Amor and UP Diliman Chancellor Edgardo Carlo L. Vistan II presented the Certificate of Appreciation to School of Urban and Regional Planning Dean Dina C. Magnaye for her keynote address during the opening ceremony of the QAhusayan Fair.
Know more about the QAhusayan Fair here: https://qa.upd.edu.ph/the-up-diliman-qahusayan-fair/.
The UP Diliman Quality Assurance Office culminates its Internal Quality Assurance activities with its Quarter 4 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.
Dr. Maria Aura Teodora C. Matias, Director of the UP Diliman Quality Assurance Office, was invited by the Office of Quality Assurance (OQA) of the Central Mindanao University to orient specific stakeholder groups about the conduct of assessment site visits, specifically in the format of the ASEAN University Network-Quality Assurance (AUN-QA).
In order to train SAR Writing Teams for the graduate program offerings of UP and align with the UP System target to further promote SAR submission, the Paghahanda: 2025 UPD QAO Self-Assessment Report (SAR) Preparation Workshops brought together 79 participants across 18 degree granting units in UP Diliman.
As a follow-up to the benchmarking activity last year by the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) with UP Diliman (UPD) academic units, another collaboration was held between the UPD Quality Assurance Office (UPD QAO) and the PUP Quality Assurance Center (PUP QAC), this time through a webinar on the ASEAN University Network – Quality Assurance (AUN-QA) Programme-level Assessment Requirements, focusing on Criteria 3 to 8 last October 27, 2025.
Five academic programs from the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy (CSSP) and the Cesar E.A. Virata School of Business (VSB) successfully completed the 3rd External Quality Review Visit held from October 13 to 15, 2025 in the University of the Philippines Diliman.
To wrap up the third quarter of the year, the UP Diliman Quality Assurance Office (UPD QAO) conducted the Quarter 3 Quality Assurance (QA) Clinic last September 23, Tuesday via Zoom Conference Meeting, gathering 52 participants from 16 degree-granting units across the UPD academic clusters.
