Response to Inquiries about Bulacan State University, Philippines
In response to recent inquiries concerning the academic qualifications obtained by a number of our academic staff at Bulacan State University (BSU), Philippines, the University wishes to make the following clarifications:
(1) A small number of our P/T and F/T academic staff from the Department of Business Administration and the Department of Economics and Finance acquired their Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) and Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) from BSU. The relevant programmes offered by BSU are registered under the Non-local Higher and Professional Education (Regulation) Ordinance (CAP493) in Hong Kong.
(2) BSU is a state university accredited by the Agency of Chartered Colleges and Universities in the Philippines (ACCUP). Programmes at doctoral level include both course work and the writing of a dissertation/thesis. The average time taken by our academic staff to complete the programme was around three years.
(3) The academic staff concerned have been with the University for more than ten years. They were employed as P/T and F/T teachers on the strength of their academic qualifications at master’s level, as well as their industry experience. None of them held a qualification from BSU upon appointment. Their continued employment at Shue Yan University as P/T or F/T teachers is further based on their teaching performance, and records show that these teachers all have above average student evaluation scores as measured by our Course and Teaching Evaluation (CTE) questionnaire or Student Learning Experience Questionnaire (SLEQ).
(4) The human resource requirement of a college is markedly different from that of a university. Hence, during the transition from Shue Yan College to Shue Yan University in the past decade, existing staff not qualified at the doctoral level were encouraged to upgrade their qualifications. The choice of institutions for this endeavour is made by the individuals involved, and the University does not play any role in this. Since Shue Yan became a university in 2006, our appointment, appraisal and promotion criteria have been significantly tightened. Currently, the overall percentage of our F/T academic staff with doctoral qualifications is 77.1%, with an additional 8.4% enrolled in doctoral studies. All new academic appointments are made at doctoral level or above.
(5) The Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualification (HKCAAVQ) subjects the University to periodic quality review.
Amended(13-11-2015 18:30)
