Letter from the Ateneo President on the non reaccreditation of AGSB at PAASCU

'Quamplurimi et quam aptissimi" (As many as possible of the very best)

Rizal Philippines
January 15, 2016

This site is reposting the letter of Ateneo Preisdent Jose Ramon Villarin SJ, posted originally at Ateneo Blueboard on the issue of loss of PAASCU accreditation by AGSB.  As this was saying in an earlier post, the issue is not the loss of quality of education at the school, but merely procedural.  There were 3 conditions, and the last two were complied with except with regards to PhD requirement for the Dean.  As the good President has stated, AGSB has not violated that because is non thesis institution. and that the present Dean has such equivalency in terms of experience.

With regards to the qualification of being PhD, I mentioned several Profs with PhD who would qualify under the PAASCU requirements.  And the students who were under such profs gave me a big fat loud NO.   How about me?  I am not a PhD and I would not qualify for the position

The posting of this letter is the first step/solution ie the communication to the students and followers of Ateneo of the correct facts and issues.

The letter of the good father SJ Jett should reassure comfort many students who were alarmed by the posts at the FB regarding the said issue.  I hope this letter assuage their worries:

The current students of this subject can reassure you that the rigor in the classroom, submission of requirements has not been diminished and lowered by this development.  The grade that they will get is surely worthy of the name of Ateneo.   I can bet on that. (even without PAASCU)

4 January 2016

Memo to         :           The University Community

Subject            :           AGSB accreditation

In their letter of 15 December 2015, the Philippine Accrediting Association for Schools, Colleges and Universities (PAASCU), through their President, Fr. Joel Tabora, informed me of their decision not to reaccredit our Graduate School of Business (AGSB). In their last visit, PAASCU made three recommendations for the AGSB to comply with, namely,  a) the academic credentials of the dean, (b) the required number of core full-time faculty members, and (c) the substantial implementation of the 2010 recommendations in the area of faculty and administration. PAASCU noted our compliance with (b) and (c), but not with (a). While we argued for the dean’s extensive academic and business record despite his lack of a PhD, PAASCU regarded the doctorate degree as an important accreditation requirement.

I would like to assure the community that this loss of accreditation does not invalidate our academic programs at the AGSB nor does it call into question the quality of these programs. We are not in violation of CHED’s policies, standards and guidelines since CHED CMO 35 (section 5.1, series of 1998) clearly states that the PhD is not a required qualification for the dean in non-thesis masteral programs, which is the case for the AGSB.

We do appreciate PAASCU’s stand on the doctoral degree, which is what global standards require as well. I would like to assure you that we shall eventually have a dean who has the appropriate doctorate to lead the AGSB. We do hold however that at this stage of the AGSB’s development, the greater need is for a dean who has the proven academic and business record to bring us to these global standards. At this point, we believe it is Mr Rudy Ang who can still help us realize the vision of academic excellence via research (strategic goal #2) and internationalization (strategic goal #4) for AGSB.

As a next step, I have asked Dr Tonette Angeles (VP for the Ateneo Professional Schools) to organize a meeting of the AGSB cluster heads with the dean to (a) come up with strategic measures to clearly communicate the implications of this accreditation issue to our different publics (e.g. students, faculty, academic and business partners, etc) and draw feedback from them, and (b) determine a course of action on re-applying for accreditation (domestic and international, i.e. PAASCU, AACSB, EQUIS, etc) with actionable items and timelines to mark our steps in this direction.

ad majorem Dei gloriam.

Jose Ramon T Villarin SJ

President