Accreditation in the Philippines:A Case StudyVictor and Gina OrdonezIntroductionAs countries progress along the development trajectory, the availability of a competent human resource base becomes a determining factor of progress.Countries progressing from an agricultural economy to a manufacturing economy to a technological and knoledge economy recognize that an ade!uate supply of higher education graduates is a necessary pre"condition forachieving and sustaining advanced levels of development in this globalized, competitive, fast"changing orld, as the tiger economies of Asia have proven. #ntil about thirty years ago the $hilippines boasted a ell"established higher education system that provided relatively democratized access for over a century, enrolling proportionately more students than all but five countries in the orld.%rom the &'()*s to the present, hoever, as many other countries itnessed phenomenal higher education groth rates, enrollment rates in the $hilippines did not.+ore alarmingly, contrary to prevailing economic isdom here higher ratios ofhigher education graduates ithin a population is meant to correlated ith improved economic development, this seemed not the case in the $hilippines here many graduates seem ill"prepared to handle the comple, orkforce demands of the modern orkplace.One symptom is the performance deficit of graduates in various national licensure e,ams certifying entry to various professions.-n e,ams of the -ntegrated .ar given by the /upreme Court, for e,ample, only 012 of candidates pass the e,amination.%or teaching candidates the pass rate for the national 3icensure 4,aminations for 5eachers 63457 e,amination, is just 8&2 and for accounting graduates taking the Certified $ublic Accountants e,am only 092.&

Another symptom:4mployers and the business community in general have arned that an inade!uate supply of ell"trained and prepared graduates is limiting the performance ofthe business system, and forcing a donard projection in e,pansion plans.%or e,ample, leaders in the service outsourcing industry, an area of projected rapid groth, complain that outof every &)) applicants for call center operator positions, only to have ade!uate skills; and managers of these centers are even harder to come by.0 Clearly the !uality of higher education is a matter of national concern.5he challenges in assuring orkplace preparation and !uality have figured largely in the evolution and development of the accreditation movement in the $hilippines.5he right balance beteen government regulation, private sector"led accreditation, and adaptation to the re!uirements of the& %rom reports of the Commission on osario, ?r, $resident , +anagement Association of the $hilippines, in paper on @$hilippine .usiness and 4ducation.A +ay, 0))1e,isting ork environment should be constantly monitored.-t is in this conte,t that various efforts at establishing accreditation for !uality have evolved.The Philippine Higher Education System:Context5he $hilippine higher education system evolved much earlier than its Asian neighbors. -tsfirst universities date to the seventeenth century, founded by the /panish colonizers to educate a local ruling elite that ould serve as its surrogates. Bith the arrival of its American colonizers in the early tentieth century, the education system as somehat democratized at all levels, encouraging democratic access and private initiative..y the &'C)s, the hundreds of higher education institutions had developed, mostly religious or private in nature, a pattern that persists to the present in a systemcomprised of &0C public universities and colleges, and &8)) private universities and colleges.5he !uality of these institutions varies idely. Bhereas a handful are orld class, ranking in the top C)) universities of the orld,8 others are little more than glorified high schools.Very fe, or sometimes none, of the graduates from these poorer institutions pass national credentialing e,aminations. >esponsibility for governing this system as located for many years ithin the +inistry or =epartment of 4ducation, in a .ureau of