Geodetic Engineering of USeP: “Behind the scene to success”
What is Geodetic Engineering? According to the PRC(Professional Regulation Commission) Official Website, “The practice of Geodetic Engineering is a professional and organized act of gathering physical data on the surface of the earth with the use of precision instruments. It is also the scientific and methodical processing of these data and presenting them on graphs, plans, maps, charts or documents.” University of the Southeastern Philippines, a national state university that also offers Bachelor of Science in Geodetic Engineering particularly in the Davao-Obrero Campus(main), graduates and students would say that it is not facile to graduate in this university and to finish or graduate in this university is considered a big achievement. From our surveys among some students we gathered the problems that GE students would usually encounter.
Number one is failing grades. Last semester, there was a 60 percent failure rate for 1st year subject Signals and Systems which is basically a course on Geodetic Engineering in USeP. The Mathematics that mostly overtook within the study would be child’s play compared to a Math’s degree. By any means the understanding of the mathematics is not hard, conceptually it is harder due to the application given some criteria and desired outcome to the problem, hence it’s not just plug and play. This was for all engineering courses. According to Mate Rate of whirl pool enthusiast; Only 65 people graduated with B eng(civil). I thought it would be much more since there were like 200+ students students when I started. Funny thing is I only recognized about 20 faces and the rest seem to be older so basically an engineer is not an easy task thou failing grades accommodates back subject.
Another problem is financial support. According to the USeP homepage, units per subject would cost 200 pesos for morning students and 250 for the nightly program. So tuition fee would be estimated to be 7,000-10,000 pesos per semester and 14,000 to 20,000 per year. USeP's tuition fee is very much affordable compared to other high standard universities. This is why students who originally lives from far places like General Santos, Cotabato and Butuan and can't afford private universities would travel for quality education. But they will also need money for transportation, books, projects, food, allowance, boarding house, etc for 5 years. So financial support is still very much needed that is also why we discovered that most of the GE students are scholars and they are pressured to gain high grades.
USeP started offering Geodetic Engineering in 2008 and produced its first batch of graduates last 2013. The pioneering batch performed well last year, with 85.71% passing rate against the 37.5% National Passing Rate. Overall, passing the licensure examination is just the beginning, given that the real challenge lies in the application of this knowledge. The Philippines now has 179 newly licensed geodetic engineers which will use science, mathematics, logic and technology