5PSU’s commitment to institutionalize the establishment of Quality Management System in both the academic and support services is one big move in achieving PSU’s vision to be the ASEAN Premier State University in 2020.

Anchored on the university’s collective desire in providing excellent quality education and in adherence to Administrative Order No. 161 entitled “Institutionalizing Quality Management System in Government” as amended by Executive Order No. 605 “encouraging Local Government Units (LGUs), State Universities and Colleges (SUCs), the Judiciary, the Legislature and the Constitutional offices to establish ISO-Quality Management Systems and pursue certification”, PSU started its initiative with series of trainings, assessments and consultations with the end goal of being ISO 9001:2015 certified SUC in Pangasinan this year.

The decision to go into ISO certification is in support to the university’s advocacy for good governance and transparency in all of its operations and processes with a decisive commitment and collective mindset led by the University President himself, Dr. Dexter R. Buted. Hence, the PSU Board of Regents, through Board Resolution No. 59E, s. 2015 during the last regular board meeting on May 15, 2015 had supported this endeavour noting the service of Rosehall Consultancy, Inc.

Rosehall Consultancy is an all-Filipino corporation engaged in consulting and training services on Total Quality Management Systems that went through the usual bidding process in compliance to RA 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Act. Bureau of Internal Revenue, Batangas State University, Department of Labor and Employment, Trinity University of Asia, and Armed Forces of the Philippines are some of its clients.

ISO 9001: 2015 is one of the standards of the ISO 9000 family that sets out the requirements of a quality management system and is the only standard in the family that can be certified to (although this is not a requirement). It can be used by any organization, large or small, regardless of its field of activity. In fact, there are over one million companies and organizations in over 170 countries certified to ISO 9001.

This standard is based on a number of quality management principles including a strong customer focus, the motivation and implication of top management, the process approach and continual improvement. Furthermore, ISO 9001:2015 helps ensure that organization’s products and services consistently meet their clients’ requirements, and that quality is consistently improved.

University president Dr. Dexter R. Buted expressed his optimism in being able to pursue the coveted ISO certification which is expected to mark in the history of PSU no matter how tedious the requirements and processes are.

The said ISO certification is PSU’s gift to its clients- the students, whose highest level of satisfaction is of utmost importance, and for which all the hard work put in for the certification is dedicated.

The Quality Management Committee is headed by Dr. Manolito Manuel designated as Quality Management Representative, Prof. Elbert Galas as the Internal Quality Auditor, Mr. Alex Mores as the Deputy for QMS, Dr. Ruby Rosa Cruz as the Document Control Custodian, along with other PSU officials.

Some of the ISO certified institutions include Jose Rizal Memorial State University, Catanduanes State University, Southern Luzon State University, Aklan State University, Cavite State University, among others.

Why the need for ISO certification?

The initiative emanates from the legal mandate issued by the government through Executive Order 605 institutionalizing the mechanisms, structure, and standards to implement the government quality management program (amending AO No. 161, s 2006) pointing all departments and agencies to adopt the ISO 9001 Quality Management Systems (QMS) as part of the implementation of the Government-wide Quality Management Program (GQMP).

Quality Management System (QMS) is a set of interrelated or interacting elements that allow the organization to establish its policy and objectives related to quality. (www.iso.org)

This is also a big help in maintaining SUC Level 4 status and will further give the university additional points in the Performance-Based Bonus (PBB) evaluation for Fiscal Year 2016 under Executive Order No. 80 and EO No. 201 specifically in the FY 2016 Performance Targets indicating the establishment of QMS for at least one core process certified by any international certifying body approved by the AO 25 IATF or ISO-aligned documentation of its QMS for one core process as evidenced by the presence of the following documents in the agency Transparency Seal: an approved quality manual and approved procedures and work instructions manual including forms.

This project finds support with the approval of the PSU-BOR of its proposed budget of which the DBM allocated 3.5 million. With the imminent ASEAN integration, the ISO certification ensures the University a stronger portfolio which is a ticket to international and more remarkable affiliations. One of which the University is eyeing is a membership in the ASEAN Universities Network (AUN) which accepts only ISO certified universities as members.

Also, imperative to the release of the CHED Memorandum Order No. 46, Series of 2012 entitled, “Policy-Standard to enhance quality assurance (QA) in Philippine Higher Education through an Outcomes-based and Typology-based QA”, the Quality Management committee has the overall responsibility for the establishment, implementation and maintenance of the PSU Quality Management System and the subsequent submission of the University for ISO certification.

Moreover, PSU is now on its third phase of its on-going preparations for ISO certification that covers all aspects of operations including finance and accounting services,   student services, library services, procurement services, enrolment procedures, among others. Hence, the establishment of the QMS will commence with PSU Lingayen campus which houses the main administration and will then be cascaded and replicated to the remaining eight other campuses. Thus far, Rosehall Consultancy has put in place all the necessary recommendations with high hopes of attaining the most coveted and vaunted ISO 9001 seal of excellence.

ROSEHALL CONSULTANCY, INC.

rosehall

ROSEHALL has been doing consulting and training since 1989 with the aim of helping clients establish management systems that go beyond meeting ISO 9000 requirements. As of end December 2012, Rosehall have been engaged by over 1000 consulting clients in TQM and the various standards, i.e. ISO 9001, ISO/TS 16949, OHSAS 18001, ISO 22000, ISO 17025 and ISO 14001. These companies belong to over 30 different industries- 55% of which are manufacturing and 45% of which are service industries. ISO 9001 consulting clients number more than 400 as of end of December 2008.

According to their web, 100% of its ISO 9000 Project Consultants are Quality Assurance (QA) professionals. ISO 9000 standards, being Quality Management System models, require knowledge of the QA function.

(http://www.rosehall.com.ph/about.do)

Nikki Soriano, PSU-PRPIO