Engineering’s declining board performance

Aside from being awarded with the highest accreditation given by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to any college or university, six departments of the Gokongwei College of Engineering’s (GCOE) are also hailed as Centers of Development for demonstrating the highest standard in the areas of instruction, research and extension.

Despite the accolades, GCOE students are not performing well in the licensure examinations conducted by the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) each year.

Before the government allows graduates under engineering programs to practice their profession, certification requires them to take examinations, and achieve a certain passing grade.  Although universities may have regular topnotchers in the licensure examinations, performance is better gauged by the passing rates.

According to the President’s Report published annually, DLSU is getting unimpressive passing rates in some programs under GCOE.

In the Electronics Engineering licensure examinations, the examination for Electronics and Communications Engineering (ECE) students, DLSU has witnessed low passing rates from the years 2003-2010. For Chemical Engineering (CHE), data shows a significant drop in the passing rates in comparison to the 2006 results, when the college achieved a 100 percent passing rate; in 2007, the passing rate was 95 percent. The 2011 exam result shows that only 7 out of 20 chemical engineering students passed the board exam, which translates to a 35 percent passing rate.

CHE Department Chair Dr. Joseph Auresenia defends that this figure may merely be an outlier. An outlier is a value that is numerically distant from the others and may have been caused by factors beyond their control. The department is currently searching for the possible factors that caused the large drop in performance.

Civil Engineering (CIV) students, on the other hand, maintained an 80 percent and above passing rates through the years, while Mechanical Engineering (ME) majors regained their ranking after they managed to achieve a passing rate of over 90 percent in 2010.

Justifying the figures

The engineering programs in DLSU are known to be difficult. For many students, passing a course is already an achievement. Passing the licensure exams is an added bonus.

Moreover, the rising demand for engineers today helped increased the number of enrollees in the GCOE. Because of this, CIV Department Chair Ronaldo Gallardo reveals that they are having problems hiring new faculty members to keep up with the increasing student population.

There is also difficulty in attracting potential professors who are qualified to teach in the University – board passers and masteral degree holders. Highly qualified engineers would rather practice their profession in the industry than be members of the academe.

The trimestral system in DLSU also contributes to the declining performance of board takers. This system makes learning relatively fast-paced, where several topics are cramped into one course. As a result, only a short period of time is dedicated for each subject matter, diminishing possible specialization. Each course is taught in a span of four months, which at times, is not sufficient for retention.

There are also some external factors affecting the performance of GCOE board takers. For instance, some graduates, instead of taking the board exams immediately after graduation, choose to work first. Auresenia explains that graduates, while working, might forget about what they have learned from the University.

DLSU is esteemed to have the best facilities among the universities in the country. The University goes beyond the CHED requirements in terms of facilities; the university even invests in facilities that other universities do not have.

Ironically, students, complain that the University’s facilities are still lacking. The University can only afford to purchase a few because of the extremely high prices of some of the more advanced technologies used for hands-on training of engineering majors. This is also a factor that contributes to the declining board performance.

Gallardo also believes that inevitable circumstances such as absence during the examination date, which counts as a failure in the exam, is also a factor.

For instance, records of the CHE Department show that only two took the licensure examination during November 2007. Only one passed, thus resulting to a 50 percent passing rate.

Letting the figures speak

The passing rates in licensure examinations are not just mere figures for the GCOE departments.  They gather, analyze, derive conclusions and draw solutions from these figures.

When asked about the initiatives taken by the college to address the problem, Auresenia shares that his department offers a course that captures all topics imperative in the four-year chemical engineering curriculum. Integration Course in Chemical Engineering (INTECHE) could be treated as a review by students who are about to take the licensure examination.

He adds that his department utilizes the statistics available, and analyzes them to find any existing trends in the passing rates. Individual scores are even gathered and are correlated with the respective DLSU College Entrance Test (DLSUCET) scores of the board takers.

As one faculty member from the Civil Engineering Department, who chose not to be identified, puts it, any field needs constant development to cope with the changes present.