WVSU ‘ready’ to offer dental program

West Visayas State University (WVSU) is “ready” to offer a dental program.

WVSU president Dr. Luis M. Sorolla Jr. on Friday said the university was chosen as one of the three state schools in the country to open a dental program. The other two are the University of Southeastern Philippines in Davao and Mindanao State University in Iligan.

“It’s a work in progress now. Hopefully if the funds will be released earlier, maybe in June (2019), we can start already. Otherwise, we can put it on hold for (the) second semester next year,” he said.

Sorolla said he already informed Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Chairman J. Prospero E. de Vera III of the readiness of the university to start with the program right away. Initially, they could offer two dental classes and one pre-dental program.

Some graduates of the Bachelor of Science in Biology can also proceed to the dental program because it is already considered as a pre-dental course.

Once realized, WVSU will be the first state university to offer the program in Western Visayas. In the entire country, only the University of the Philippines Manila offers the program. However, some private higher education institutions have begun offering the program.

Meanwhile, Sorolla said the plan to offer a law program is also “a work in progress.”

“There are lots of requirements and the Legal Education Board is also very strict as of the moment. We have complied (with) some but there are others that need finishing touches that we are not ready to submit for evaluation,” he said.

Considering the time constraints and other concerns that they have to attend to, they might work on the additional requirements after the June opening next school year.

Sorolla also said they are planning to offer Veterinary Medicine.

“We are having problems with our faculty because graduates are very rare. We have to train some of our faculty first,” he said, adding that offering the program is significant because of the high demand here and abroad.

He shared that even the WVSU Wildlife Conservation Park has to get one veterinarian from the Aklan State University.

“Zoos from various parts of the country are requesting but we have none,” he said.

He said Veterinary Medicine is a very lucrative field and the fees for animals are even more expensive, especially exotic ones, because they are very rare.

He said Veterinary Medicine is not immediate as the priority is the dental program and second is law.

Recently, WVSU landed in the seventh spot of the best performing schools in the country, with 91 of its 94 takers passing the 2018 Physician Licensure Examination. One of its graduates also landed in the 10th spot.

SOURCE: Iloilo Metropolitan Times

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