Dr. Monet M. Loquias, College Secretary, UP Manila College of Pharmacy, was voted by the UP Board of Regents as its new dean at its meeting held on July 1, 2016. She will serve from July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2019. In the same meeting, current College of Public Health Dean Engr. Romeo R. Quizon was reappointed for a second term.
The appointment capped a two-month search process held for each dean with activities, such as open forums, sectoral consultations, and interviews that were supervised by their respective search committees.
Dean Loquias’ Plans and Programs Based on her vision-mission presented during the open forum, one of Dr. Loquias’ top agenda is the revision of the BS Pharmacy, BS Industrial Pharmacy and MS Pharmacy programs to make them outcome-based, and thus, more relevant and globally competitive. The development of new graduate programs relevant to current pharmacy practice, such as certificate and diploma programs and the incorporation of formative and summative evaluation components of the different curricula are also among her priority curricular projects.
Accordingly, the new dean will undertake a faculty development program to include trainings or short courses to retool or equip faculty with new knowledge, skills and a nurturing attitude towards students, as well as skills in experimental and clinical researches necessary in preparing research proposals. Other plans are requiring faculty members, especially the new ones to take basic courses at the National Teacher Training Center for the Health Professions, expansion of the mentoring program to cover other junior faculty members, and externship of faculty members in pharmaceutical laboratories and at the PGH Pharmacy Department or other hospitals with clinical services.
Dr. Loquias also vowed to strengthen the college’s partnership with the PGH as practice site for both faculty and students. This will be through the following projects: improvement of drug management; improvement of clinical pharmacy services at the PGH Pay Patient Department; institution of faculty appointment in PGH, continuation of the Good Pharmacy Practice collaborative projects with PGH. She pledged that her administration will pursue relevant and collaborative researches in both basic and applied sciences of drug discovery and pharmacy practice with the end goal of translating outputs of these researches. Faculty members will engage in researches from the opportunities generated from linkages that will result to products which can be patented and utilized by the marginalized sectors of the society.
She promised to expand the college’s scope of extension services to include not only teaching or training but also consultancy on technical expertise and those borne out of research that would benefit the regulatory agencies, professional organizations and pharmaceutical industry. Specific projects geared towards the above goals include the setting up of an assessment center for pharmacy services (as a result of DOH AO 34 and Memorandum Circular 25, pharmacy assistants with NC3 will be an FDA requirement for the
renewal of license of pharmaceutical establishments) and improvement of clinical pharmacy services at the PGH Pay Patient Department.
With several years of experience with the College and other institutions as educator, researcher, administrator, leader, and advocate, she is bent on positioning the CP as the National Resource Center for Pharmaceutical Policy Analysis/official training partner of DOH and as a resource for the country and other schools of pharmacy by educational model building (pilot testing of various teaching-learning strategies etc.), including support for faculty to produce and publish teaching learning materials.
On the Return Service Agreement (RSA) implementation, the new dean said that her administration will continue to tap the alumni and partner organizations for the establishment of employment opportunities in practice settings, including research opportunities through projects funded by the NIH, DOST-PCHRD, DOH, CHED, and other sources of grants. To track the college’s graduates and monitor the performance of its curriculum, an alumni monitoring system will be set up and an FB group for alumni will be created for information sharing, networking, and updating. She will institute a “featured alumni of the quarter” program who may be invited to give a lecture to the students and propose the creation of alumni chapters locally and internationally.
Dean Quizon’s Plans and Programs Among the major plans of Dean Quizon are the implementation of an Outcome-based Education (OBE) across CPH’s degree programs, implementation of the Center for Equity in Health (CEH), and the construction of the Dr. Stephen Zuellig Building through a donation of Zuellig Foundation, Inc. When Dean Quizon ended his first term, 81% of the course syllabi have been modified to meet the requirements of OBE and in compliance with the quality assurance standards of national and regional bodies. On the other hand, the CEH will be the leading voice in advocating improvements in the Philippine health system and achieving social inclusiveness to ensure that all Filipinos reach the highest level of health through the conduct of researches on health inequities. Meanwhile, the 12-story CPH building, to start construction in 2017, will have a space devoted for research pursuits.
As the communities’ partner in promoting public health, Dean Quizon also pledged that CPH will continue to implement the School Health Project through the integration of existing health programs targeted for elementary schools. Other promising initiatives that aim to strengthen the CPH’s partnership with the DOH are the institutionalization of the Health Leadership and Governance Program (HLGP) to catalyze the transformation of local government officials, conduct of trainings for local chief executives as well as the DOH regional offices.
The College will also offer a diploma course on HLG using the “step ladder approach” the curriculum of which is nearing completion by the CPH, School of Health Sciences and UP Visayas. To ensure sustained quality standards in teaching, research, and public service, the CPH will aim for the Philippine Association of Accrediting Schools, Colleges, and Universities (PAASCU) accreditation; Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Accreditation as Center of Excellence in Public Health; and recognition as a WHO Collaborating Center. At present, CPH is the SEAMEO-TROPMED Regional Center for Public Health Administration, Environmental and Occupational Health.
During the past three years under Dean Quizon’s watch, additional linkages were forged with several universities for academic cooperation and exchange programs. These include the Yokohama City University, Ryukyus University, Teikyo University all in Japan, Boston University, University of Sydney, And University of Arizona, Indonesia International Institute for Life Science, Dokkyo Medical University, etc. Future collaborations are being eyed with the Griffith University, National University of Singapore, and University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). Such collaborations provide opportunities for trainings and personnel development for the faculty, staff, and students through networking for scholarship programs locally and abroad.
