UPD QAO holds 2025 Q2 QA Clinic, highlights UPD’s 100% iAADS submission
  • Written by: Czarina Joy B. Arevalo and Kelvin R. Mendoza
  • Photos by: Michelle S. Lagare, Arlyh F. Hirao

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SDG 4 - Quality Education
SDG 9 - Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
SDG 17 - Partnerships for the Goals

Banking on the successful 100%  iAADS submission of UP Diliman for the 2024 cycle, the UP Diliman Quality Assurance Office (UPD QAO) brought together 59 academic unit heads and QA Officers from 37 degree-granting units (DGUs) in the recently held QA Clinic at the National Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (NIMBB) last June 23, 2025. 

The QA Clinic is a quarterly initiative of the UP Diliman Quality Assurance Office designed to support academic units in aligning with the University’s quality assurance goals. With the recently concluded 2024 iAADS Cycle submissions, the second quarter QA Clinic aimed to provide a platform for strategic guidance, insights sharing, and progress monitoring on the QA initiatives across DGUs.

UPD QAO Director Matias in the 2025 Q2 QA Clinic.

In her Welcome Remarks, QAO Director Prof. Aura C. Matias shared the overview of the QA Clinic, which centered on the iAADS as an internal quality assurance tool of the UP System. The discussion sessions for the Q2 QA Clinic were the iAADS Overview, 2024 iAADS Insights Report for UP Diliman, and Post-iAADS reminders. 

Institute of Chemistry Professor Emeritus and QA Capability Building Committee Member Irene Villaseñor served as resource speaker discussing the UP’s IQA: Internal Academic Assessment Development System (iAADS). With Professor Emeritus Villaseñor’s discussion on iAADS, the session provided alignment on UPD’s shared vision for quality assurance and integration on the DGU’s Post-iAADS reports preparation.

Professor Emeritus Irene Villaseñor during her discussion on UP’s IQA: Internal Academic Assessment Development System (iAADS).

“iAADS helps us assess and improve all our University’s academic functions,” Director Matias added as she discussed the role of iAADS in helping the University gather up-to-date baseline data. 

“We need to make it a habit to document all the information and accomplishments, because we cannot improve what we cannot measure,” she continued as she reminded everyone that the DGUs should not just collect data for collection’s sake, instead, data should be translatable to strategic decisions and action plans.

For compliance and timeliness, the report suggests that UPD goes all-in with 100% submissions, marking the highest compliance of UPD since iAADS started in 2012. However, timeliness remains to be a concern. Data shows only 17 or 24% of units were able to meet the original deadline of December 31, 2024 down from 58% from last cycle.

For financial resource planning, the data reveals a significant reliance on default funding among degree-granting units. Meanwhile, regarding financial resources and productivity, the analysis points to partnerships as the primary catalyst for UPD’s internal operations. Grants from both UP and external partners are exceptionally impactful, being 22x greater than the combined MOOE budget from the academic units’ internal operating budget (IOB).

The CU Insights Report looked into the performance of UPD per criterion. For Academic Credentials, only around one-third of UPD faculty members have doctorate degrees. This is a 2% increase from the last iAADS cycle.  Meanwhile, a slight 4% decrease in PhD with foreign training was also observed. 

For Overall Track Record, more faculty members were assigned with more than 12 units average actual teaching load per semester. There was a 5%  increase in faculty members handling more than 12 units teaching load from the last iAADS cycle. 83% recorded regular full-time and research faculty with publication and creative work experience, meanwhile 38% faculty members were recognized for their valuable contributions in their respective fields through awards.

For Teaching Performance, student evaluations showed that nearly all teachers were rated positively. A very small percentage of faculty received unsatisfactory student ratings at 1.31% for undergraduate instructors and 1.21% for graduate instructors.

Participants during the Q2 QA Clinic Discussion Groups session.

The CU-Level iAADS Insights Report reflected the quantitative data submissions by the 72 DGUs in the University. After the discussion session of Prof. Aura C. Matias, the participants participated in a focus discussion groups to talk about their  key takeaways from the presentation; highlight the topic or insight that resonated with them the most; and share the top three action items the participants would propose or personally commit to.After the cluster huddles, which serve as a platform for open discussion, representatives shared the key takeaways and insights that transpired in their respective discussion groups.

Major themes and findings include data management and culture; manpower and funding efficiency; strategic alignment and institutional vision; and faculty well-being and incentives. 

Social Sciences and Law Cluster pointed out continuity on faculty mentorship due to sudden lack of senior faculty as key insight for their discussion group.  “Natuwa rin po kami sa explanations ng iAADS Scoring Formula. Very much appreciated po. Yung clarification sa nature of post-IAADS report. It is a strategic plan for the next three years. Now we have a better idea on how to proceed with our next tasks as QA officers,” CSSP Department of History Assistant Professor Micah Perez shared.

Group representatives share their insights and feedback.

“Some of the other feedback and comments from the group kasama dito yung educators are not just educators of the past, but we are also administrators. Kailangan nating magtrabaho for improvements and to listen to stakeholders not just reactive compliance, but to take on QA seriously,” College of Media and Communication Assistant Professor Maria Rosa Cer Bragais reiterated what transpired in their discussion group composed of DGUs from the Arts and Letters, Management and Economics, and Science and Technology Cluster.

Part of their group’s action point is encouraging people to take part in QA, including regularizing and institutionalizing the data harvesting using the tools developed in the last cycle. This is alongside the strategic planning being commenced by various academic units and the use of iAADS results in strengthening QA endeavors. 

College of Science NIMBB Associate Professor Jose Enrico Lazaro highlighted data gathering and the integration of information that is already available in TALAS and CRS as a major thing that resonated with their discussion group composed of DGUs from the College of Engineering and the School of Library and Information Studies. 

Meanwhile, the Arts and Letters Cluster represented by the College of Human Kinetics – Department of Physical Education Assistant Professor Rachelle Peneyra expressed the need to check on the faculty teaching load and implement incentives for them to have opportunity for research. 

The takeaways and insights gave a strong foundation for the university-level and academic unit level strategic planning. Moreover, the collated feedback articulated the current landscape and the pressing needs of the university’s academic units in terms of data management systems.

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In synthesis, QAO Director Matias assured everyone that all of the discussion points are well taken. “Quality is not permanent. It is really a continuous improvement process. What is quality to us now is not going to be the same quality characteristics in the future, because you know, times are always changing. Even our learners, the way our students learn is much different from how we, my generation, used to learn. The availability of technology also now starts to influence even the kind of learning styles that, even us as faculty, have to adapt to the new learning tools and instruments. There is still a lot to do. Pinaka-challenge natin is data collection, getting the right data. Sometimes we have a lot of data, but they don’t translate to information,” Director Matias said. 

She also reiterated that QA is not any one single person’s responsibility, but everybody’s responsibility and highlighted the importance of top management support, “There has to be a serious buy-in of our Deans and Department Chair and of course, our other big top management support. Leadership/Top management support is really of great importance.”

The Internal Quality Assurance Team of the UPD QAO gave the Post-iAADS activities Reminders, to address issues highlighted and create action plans. UPD’s internal deadline is slated on September 30, 2025.

“This is the time to thank everyone for your participation, and engaging especially in the discussion. It has been an insightful afternoon and I hope this gets translated to action items especially when you do your post-iAADS assessments,” Prof. Evangeline C. Amor, Performance Monitoring Team Faculty-in-Charge, expressed in her Closing Remarks.

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