Institutional Sustainability and Quality Assurance System of State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) in Region III / Valentos, Alfredo DM.

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The study aimed to determine how faculty profile and organizational factors influence the institutional sustainability towards quality assurance system of State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) in Region III be described during Academic Year 2014-2015. Specifically. The variable under study include the profile of the faculty which comprises their age, sex, faculty rank as per NBC 461 evaluation, educational attainment, highest relevant/appropriate degree finished/earned and area of specialization. On the other hand, organization related factors include the implementation of policies, culture and climate. The second frame presents dependent variable that include the level of institutional sustainability and quality assurance system. The institutional sustainability and quality assurance system described along with the following: governance and management; quality of teaching and learning; professional exposure, research and creative works/innovations; and relationship with the community. The data collected through the questionnaire was tallied and tabulated in order being required by the previously stated problems and distributed in accordance with the variables stated in the problems. The data collected through the questionnaire was encoded and statistically processed using the built-in statistical package in MS Excel 2010 and statistically processed with used of PASW Statistic version 18 (previously known as SPSS). The program was used to facilitate the processing and interpretation of data. SPSS readily provides the significance or probability for the statistical tests. In the analysis and interpretation of the surveyed data, frequency count and percentage were used to describe the faculty profile in terms of age, sex, faculty rank, educational attainment, highest relevant/appropriate degree finished/earned, and area of specialization. Weighted mean was also utilized to find out the organizational related factors of higher education institution in terms of implementation of policies, culture, and climate as well as the level of institutional sustainability towards outcomes-based quality assurance system of higher education institution with the respect to governance and management, quality of teaching and learning, quality professional exposure, research, and creative works/innovations, and relations with the community. Pearson's Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient (Pearson Correlation) was used to determine the relationships of the faculty related factors such as age, faculty rank and educational attainment as well as organizational related factors with the level of institutional sustainability towards quality assurance system of higher education institution. On the other hand, Independent Sample T-test was used to find out if there is a significant difference in the level of institutional sustainability towards quality assurance system of higher education institutions when respondents are grouped according to sex. This is to determine the relationship of sex and level of institutional sustainability. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) or F-test was employed to determine the relationship of specialization and level of institutional sustainability. Further, Multiple Regression with stepwise variable selection was employed to determine which factors taken singly or in combination best predict the institutional sustainability of higher education institutions towards outcomes-based quality assurance. Multiple regression is a technique that enables researchers to determine a correlation between a criterion variable and the best combination of two or more predictor variables. In the stepwise regression method, it starts with a model with an independent variable and then includes variable that causes increase in the multiple R2. Independent variables which are significantly correlated with the dependent variable are entered as predictors in building a regression model. The regression procedure includes various statistics. The F statistic tests whether any of the independent variable are significantly related to the dependent variables, while the T statistic is used to test each individual variable separately. The standard error of the estimate is a standard deviation type summary of the dependent variable that measures the deviation of observations around the best fitting straight line. Beta or beta weights are standardized regression coefficients and are used to judge the relative importance of each of several independent variables. On the other hand, since PASW Statistics Version 18 was utilized, the probability values (p-values) of significance level of statistical tests are readily available for comparison with 0.05 level of significance which was set by the researcher prior to the conduct of the study. If the p-value is less than or equal to 0.05, the statistical test is significant and therefore the null hypothesis is rejected (not accepted/significant). Otherwise, it is not rejected (accepted/not significant). The degree of significance of statistical tests can be readily seen with the output of the SPSS used in analyzing the data. The probability or significance level values were then compared to 0.05, which was set as the critical value for the hypothesis testing prior to the conduct of this study. Based on the findings of the study, conclusion was drawn: it is concluded that there is a significant relationship between the organizational related factors and the level of institutional sustainability towards quality assurance system. Based on the finding of the study, conclusion was drawn: it is concluded that there is a significant relationship between the organizational related factors and the level of institutional sustainability towards quality assurance system. Based on the conclusion drawn, the following are hereby recommended: the university should focus on the following : expected learning outcomes; program specification; program structure and content of curriculum; teaching and learning strategy; quality of academic staff; support staff quality; facilities and infrastructure; quality assurance of teaching and learning process; staff development activities; stakeholders feedback; output; and stakeholders satisfaction. As the assessment will be based mostly on objective evidences, it is important that the university has prepared a well written institutional sustainability assessment report and get ready all key documents and records for assessment. The document will allow the administration and/or assessors to look at the history of the program, the performance of its faculty the quality of academic and support staff and feedback from all stakeholders. Sometimes the quality of programs is left to the faculty of departments offering the programs. Thus conflicts of interests usually lead to internal clashes within departments. Creation of many programs is also left to the faculty, with very minimal inputs from various stakeholders (students, alumni, employers, both public and private, etc.) and is being done without evaluating existing one for relevance, quality and sustainability even if new programs are scrutinized by various committees and bodies such as the university curriculum committees and the university councils. In the changing educational landscape, curricular review to incorporate changes to make the academic programs regionally, it not globally competitive, must be undertaken. Tracer studies, exit interviews, industry partnerships and stakeholder's feedback - quality assurance indicators are needed to assess the competitiveness of graduates of Philippine higher educational institution. Investments in human capital and infrastructure, quality assurance assessments, review of national laws, stakeholders feedback and consultation and a competency-based standards for our professionals which are aligned with the ASEAN competency-based occupational standards are critical steps to help us achieve competitiveness for the educational programs and prepare the higher education graduates for the influx of well-educated nationals of ASEAN and enhance further the image, perceptions, credibility, and influence.

Faculty, support staff and administrators must welcome a paradigm shift and develop a global mindset with focus on developing competencies, emphasizing quality and development of soft skills such as communication, flexibility, initiative and ability to work with a team.