After a two-year halt, the Visayas State University held the Academic Convocation for academic years 2020-2021, 2021-2022, and 2022-2023 spanning all of the five component campuses in the VSU system today, November 21, at the university gymnatorium.
The convocation address titled "Padayon sa Paglambo, VSU" highlighted the accomplishments of the past and current academic year, and forged plans for what is in store for the university.
In his speech, Dr. Tulin introduced the creation of a new organizational structure. A prime example is the creation of the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs and Services ( OVPSAS) designed to cater to student empowerment to meet their psychosocial, emotional, and financial needs.
“On top of this, we’ve also conducted a clear consultation process for the appointment and designation of the different heads of offices within our system. We’ve even cascaded to them a reframed version of our Strategic Plan as part of the annual management review and the year-end performance assessment of our institution.”
Recovering from the pandemic, the university also introduced a new normal education roadmap called the “University Learning Continuity Plan” setting the direction for curriculum development, and feedback mechanism for the experiences of Viscans.
Dr. Tulin said that his administration will continue with the faculty and staff development citing an in-house training session that includes webinars for mental health and physical well-being.
“The direction for planning and curriculum development, learning delivery and a clear process of evaluation as our feedback mechanism for the experiences of students.”
The university also boasts its human resource development programs.
“Our faculty and staff development continues with eight (8) returning scholars reinstated, composed of three (3) new doctoral degree holders and five (5) master of science degree holders. For 2021 alone, we’ve sent a total of 26 scholars for study leave composed of 13 doctoral students and another 13 master of science students. We’ve also reinstated 12 faculty members on sabbatical leave and approved 13 new applications for sabbatical leave in 2021,” Dr. Tulin said.
He also highlighted in his speech the major projects conducted for research and innovation following an increase in local agreements and national partnerships.
"We’ve registered 24 patents and accomplished 16 new IP filings with 17 pending IPR applications and 10 commercialized technologies for 2021. We accounted for a total of 89 publications last year.."
The improvement of the online automation system in the university also made a mark after successful online enrollment, virtual commencement exercises, and college admission test across all campuses of the VSU system during the pandemic. "Our support to students has always been strong starting off with the online conduct of our annual VSU College Admission Test..." The university successfully rolled out an online admission test that has been benchmarked for by other schools in the country.
The addition of the new library with an increased number of physical books, online subscriptions, e-book lending, and other logistic services have brought extensive infrastructure development in the university.
With focus on the quality assurance of the university, President Tulin lauded the university’s 100% remote audit last year, the first of its kind in Eastern Visayas.
“We continue to improve on our internal audit processes as part of our commitment to improve our systems and procedures here in the university.”
He continued with the parade of quality assurance developments achieved by the university as certified by independent institutions that evaluate various parameters in areas of research, teaching, employment, and services. Among the awards were the 4-star research-oriented university evaluation from the University Performance Metrics; the Finalist for the Gawad Edukampyon; and the 1st Runner Up in the 2020 Ugnay Award to ViCARP regional research and extension consortium.
Dr. Tulin also highlighted VSU’s reputation as “one of the emerging universities in the Philippines and in Southeast Asia” by securing international partnerships and recognitions like the AACCUP rate as the top performing state university in 2021 for having the highest number of Level IV accredited programs.
“And that’s just for 2021. We now move to the accomplishments we’ve done for this year and we will divide this report according to our collective achievements in terms of (1) administration; (2) academic and student affairs; (3) research, extension, and innovation; (4) planning and resource generation; and (5) the current accomplishments of our component campuses.”
The address also included Tulin's commitment to forging plans for the future. It blueprints the establishment of the College of Medicine as the first in the region.
"This move will hopefully address the manpower needs of our local medical sector now that Baybay City is aggressive in its drive to improve health services not just for its constituents but also for the residents of nearby municipalities in Western Leyte."
President Tulin ended the university address with:
"I’m confident that with your enabling help and support to the VSU administration plus the unwavering assistance of our national and local officials, we will be able to accomplish more to make VSU relevant to the many challenges of our times."
Edited and contributions by Xavier John D. Villaruel and Marielle Angelica Ogaya