The Cordillera Career Development College led eight schools from the region that made it to the World University Rankings for Innovation (WURI) 2023 list of academes with innovative approaches in education.
Joining for the first time, CCDC ranked 122nd in the overall ranking system while its entry to the ethical value category ranked 35th.
WURI, which is now on its fourth annual rankings, announced the result at a conference in Florida, United States of America on May 18.
President Sherry Junette Malaya-Tagle said CCDC submitted its birthing clinic transformation and Operation Kajo project for the ethical value category.
Tagle said the CCDC birthing clinic, a laboratory for the clinical learning experiences of midwifery students, emerged as a health crisis-responsive facility for maternal and child care when Covid-19 pandemic exhausted hospital facilities in the locality.
Instead of clo-sing, she said CCDC transformed the educational birthing clinic to an active and responsive health facility catering to the community’s prenatal care, normal spontaneous delivery, newborn care, postpartum care, health education in maternal and newborn care, family planning and breastfeeding.
Now, the clinic has expanded to include PhilHealth accreditation to make possible the accessibility of its health care services even to the marginalized sector of society, particularly the indigenous peoples of the Cordillera.
Meanwhile, Operation Kajo was a student-led disaster response in 2021 in partnership with the Benita and Catalino Yap Foundation and the Pilipinas Shell Foundation.
The program provided Benguet farmers affected by the onslaught of Typhoon Maring with initial planting materials to restart their farms and rice packs to help them get through the crisis.
Tagle said the ranking speaks volumes of the innovations and growth CCDC is pursuing to become an ethical and purposeful educational institution.
Meanwhile, other institutions that made it to the overall global ranking are the University of Baguio in 149th, Saint Louis University in 154th, Kalinga State University in 162nd followed by the University of the Cordilleras in 163rd and Ifugao State University on 172nd.
Benguet State University ranked 202nd while Abra State Institute of Science and Technology ranked 213th.
Also, SLU placed 43rd while UB placed 47th in the top 50 entrepreneurial spirit category; Ifugao State University ranked 42nd in the ethical value category; UC ranked 28, SLU-29, and BSU-38 in the fourth industrial revolution category.
The WURI evaluates the university’s real contributions to society, highlighting creative and innovative approaches of universities’ research and educational programs based on the categories: industrial application; value creating; social responsibility, ethics, and integrity; student mobility and openness; crisis management; and progress during the fourth industrial revolution. – Ofelia C. Empian
