QMS runs 2nd IQA

Photo by: Andrés Nieto Porras

University of Cagayan Valley's Quality Management System (QMS) office conducted its second Internal Quality Audit (IQA) for the school year last Feb. 11-12, 2016 to identify university-wide improvement areas in compliance with ISO 9001:2008.

Quality Controller Ms. Aileen Collado says "We are working for the students... as an overall reason for the existence of QMS, aligned to the dreams and aspirations of the Board of Directors."

The second IQA concludes the targeted number of internal audits before an external audit by UCV's supplier of standards services British Standards Institution (BSI) group, may be had.

QMS Director, Dr. Lolita Cabalza says that her office expects the external audit in May 2016 where BSI auditors will conduct follow-ups on UCV's improvement areas based on the first BSI audit.

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Last school year, Dr. Cabalza and Ms. Collado moved for the university's ISO 9001: 2008 certification, where best-practices in the form of international standards are adopted as a way to strengthen the university's quality services.

Ms. Collado admits that implementing ISO standards was a big task and that it was challenging because of the gradual change. Despite the challenges, she says that "We [QMS] always sees things for the university."

Director Cabalza reports that the IQAs have been generally "successful" because "So far, the Internal Quality Auditors are doing good with their job -- a big help to the university." She adds that the continuous monitoring being conducted were factors in identifying Nonconformity (NC) of offices in the standards.

Internal Quality Auditors are composed of directors, faculty, and personnel from across the university who assess the operations manuals of other offices and identify their noncompliance. Operations manuals on the other hand cover the basic services expected to be performed by an office which are in turn assessed by the Internal Quality Auditors.

Director Cabalza says"We solicit from the whole studentry their cooperation in maintaining our ISO certification as they are the [university's internal] stakeholders," underlining that the standards maintained by QMS ultimately benefit the students through continual improvement of university services.