Category: News

“Let your graduation remind you of the gains that you have achieved collectively and individually.”- J. Prosper E. De Vera III, Chairperson of Commission on Higher Education (CHED).

While the pandemic has hindered the education institutions to initiate face-to-face graduation, Dr. De Vera believed that it did not stop the CHED’s aspirations to produce competitive and quality graduates in a form of flexible learning.

In his speech during the 2020 & 2021 West Visayas State University Online Commencement Exercises, Dr. De Vera has projected honor and displayed a salutation to the graduates who successfully championed the difficulties of remote learning.

“I understand your frustration of missing a live graduation pero saludo ako sa inyo dahil nagpatagumpayan ninyo ang mga hamon ng pandemya at naipagpatuloy sa kabila ng mga balakid at limitasyon at ngayon ay mas handa na kayong harapin ang susunod na yugto ng inyong buhay,” Dr. De Vera said.

Aside from gracing the graduation rights, Dr. De Vera has also witnessed stories of success among students who are facing difficulties in online learning where he also shared it during his graduation message.

Exuding pride and happiness, Dr. De Vera shared that even during a pandemic, there are more than 1.6 million Filipinos in more than 200 public universities who now continue to receive quality education for free.

It might have been hard for the students but he also ensured that the CHED will continue to nourish the skills of the learners who are dedicated to working independently by adapting policy in the new normal.

“You and your university were able to courageously respond to the needs of the times. Move forward as one and rise above the challenges. Now in the part of CHED, we acted quickly and conscientiously at the onset of pandemic and devised ways to allow continued access to quality education through flexible modes of learning,” Dr. De Vera emphasized.

Dr. De Vera is also optimistic that the graduates will become active contributors to the national growth and competitiveness of the country.

He also urged the graduates to make a distinctive mark in society by transforming lives through the competencies they acquired anchored to the university’s core values.  

“Never stop learning and continue to pursue activities that will serve as precursors of discovery to ensure continuous productivity and sustainability for our future generation,” Dr. De Vera concluded.

-Jonar Dorado/CILPI

For the first time, the West Visayas State University (WVSU) aired its 119^th Commencement Exercise through virtual set up on Wednesday, August 11, 2021 via live-streams on WVSU Facebook Page and WVSU WebAdmin YouTube channel.

For 119 years, WVSU has lived up to its commitment to develop lifelong learners and transform communities as agents of change. This year the university commends the 449 graduates for the Class 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 who received their bachelors’, masters’, and doctoral degrees, as conferred by the WVSU President, Dr. Joselito F. Villaruz.

The virtual ceremony marks as the culmination of all the hardwork by the graduates from different Colleges in the University. Out of the 449 total number of graduates, 284 of it were from the Class 2019-2020 and 165 from Class 2020-2021: College of Agriculture and Forestry (CAF), 11; College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), 127; College of Business and Management (CBM), 23; College of Communication (COC), 8; College of Education (COE), 242; College of Information and Communications Technology (CICT), 4; College of Nursing (CON), 8; and College of PESCAR, 26.

Present in the pre-recorded virtual celebration of perseverance and excellence of the WVSU graduates was the Chairman of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), Dr. J. Prospero E. De Vera III who was the keynote speaker. Dr. De Vera commended the success stories of everyone despite the problems and challenges caused by the pandemic.

Atty. Dennis T. Ventillacion, President of the WVSU Federated Alumni Associations, led the Pledge of Induction of the graduating classes.

The Graduates’ Prayer was led by the Most Outstanding Graduate from the College of Education, Dr. Edsel O. Coronado.

-Zennia Mirasol/CILPI

  This sums up the very message of CHED Webinar on Responding Higher Education Challenges through Internationalization, July 23.

       Whereas, West Visayas State University was selected as one of the 14 public universities in the Philippines to be part of CHED’s Fostering World Class Philippine Universities in line with the Building the Internationalization Competitiveness of the Philippine Higher Education Project.

      During her keynote speech, Atty. Milla quoted International Relations officers (IROs) PH, “We envision the internationalization of Philippine higher education as a driver of quality, relevant, and sustainable trailblazing opportunities for institutions, agencies, and other stakeholders that will transform the country into a knowledge-based society.”

     The OIC office of the Deputy Executive Director also discussed the Internationalization as a DRIVER of Philippine Higher Education.

     This strategy was integrated to develop high-quality and high-impact internationalization initiatives, re-engineer existing policies, institutionalize internationalization, vitalize inter-agency cooperation, engage industries and related stakeholders, and reinforce compelling messages and incentives.

     However, Atty. Milla shared that the internationalization approaches of CHED were greatly affected by the pandemic. “Until COVID-19 struck–and international education is now being challenged and in fact, the value of internationalization is again being questioned, and it is, in fact, being disputed.”

     The Fostering World Class Philippine Universities is a project to boost the global presence of the Philippine higher education sector and cultivate world-class Philippine universities.

     This was participated by 14 public universities initially selected for this project to accelerate local and global inter-university research collaboration, to improve academic reputation, to promote international initiatives and increase global reputation and engagement, to foster great international linkages, and benchmarking of Philippines HEIs with leading foreign universities.  

-Jonar Dorado/CILPI

Held via online conferencing, the West Visayas State University-College of Education Graduate School gave recognition to the best research outputs both on master’s and doctoral level, July 19.

For the master’s level, among the winners was Aura Carmela Ferrariz-Sendico, MAEd Biological Science who bested other seven research presenters with her research entitled “Science Teachers’ Laboratory Activity Peferences, Local Resources and Cultural Knowledge: Bases for the Development of a Placed- Based Laboratory Activity.”

Meanwhile, the “Pedagogical Content Knowledge of Non-Biology Specialists: Basis for the Development of a Teaching Guide” by Ferolyn J. Balajadia – PhD in Science Education earned the top spot in the doctoral dissertation.

“The conduct of Research Forum is anchored on the belief that our graduate students and faculty members are major contributors in realizing the university’s vision of becoming a research university,” said Dean Ricky Magno during his welcome remarks.

The forum, participated by nominees of respective research advisers, aimed to showcase different research works, disseminate significant research findings, and confer the best master’s thesis and doctoral dissertation award.

Associate Dean Dr. Antoniette D. Cortez shared that holding the first virtual research forum of the graduate school was never easy. However, through the dedication of the working committee towards the advancement of research works, they were able to pull it off without errors. 

The Reading Association of the Philippines (RAP) conducted an online conference entitled Enabling Learners through Language and Literacy whereas six of the participants were faculty members and Education graduate school students of West Visayas State University, July 22-24.

The faculty members are Mary June D. Pineda, Lorey F. Tanaleon, and Antoniette D. Cortez while GL John C. Haro, Abraham T. Vargas, and Mary Jane P. Arenga participated as students research presenters.

The event has aimed to share the research works and best practices that highlight the role of language and literacy in teaching and learning and during and beyond these challenging times.

The participants shared they had a one-hour roundtable discussion with the most number of participants in the session outnumbering the Arellano University and the University of Philippines-Diliman.

Among the plenary speakers are Dr. Jose Lalas, Director of Educational Justice at the University of Redlands, California who talked about reading instruction, theories, and research in higher education.

During his talk, Dr. Lalas has shared a quote from the statement of Duncheon & Relles, “School is not simply a place where students learn academic content and skills. . . . It is also a place where they develop a sense of what kind of people they are, where they belong in the world, what they are capable of and entitled to, and what they can expect in the future.” 

Aside from Dr. Lalas, Dr. Portia Padilla of the University of the Philippines, and Dr. Cynthia McDermott of Antioch University, USA, also ignited the online forum with their expertise in adolescent, and intermediate literacy respectively. – Jonar Dorado/CILPI