In a grand move, the school began the lengthy, arduous process of deregulation by applying to the most prestigious and most demanding accrediting body in the nation, PAASCU. This is not an unforeseen action; the administration has long since planned for it upon achieving its target profile of professional licensure percentages for the adequate number of years.

It is a natural tendency for some to speculate that this might be too daring a move for such a young institution. Others might surmise that perhaps a few more years would give ample time for the school to perfect all its important areas for a conceivably surer chance for accreditation.

Seeking a stamp of approval is a fundamental indication of the resolve to excel. Acknowledging and conforming to standards set by a recognizably higher body do not denote dissatisfaction of one’s own standards, but respect and adaptation to a more advanced set of criteria for a closer step of attaining superiority and distinction in one’s field.

PAASCU as an academic accrediting body specifies that its aim is not to criticize its applicant schools but to help them attain their own mission and vision. With DMCCFI’s immovable goal for the standards of excellence and global competency, the importance of accreditation cannot be overemphasized. It is an essential ingredient in obtaining the school’s aim for total diversification of its courses and its widespread adaptation to technology (which is evident in its full-blown support for the College of Computer). Deregulation is not so much for the concomitant results of fame and prestige as for the overall benefit of providing for the best and finest education to the students in the process of upgrading educational quality.

Whatever the age, length of experience and track record of the school, it is never to early nor too late to seek for a status upgrade, because, to quote a very astute person, “there is nothing bad that would come out of it, and whatever the results would be, they could never be detrimental to the school.” A school applying to PAASCU would be required to follow the most grueling of all work, which would naturally entail rigorous clean-ups and renovations, frantic constructions and numerous revisions, upgrading and supplementing of virtually every area of the academe, from bathrooms to syllabi. If (God forbid) the school in the end fails to grab the deregulated status, it would still reap the benefits of all the augmenting and improvisations that it did at the outset.

DMC’s Administration realizes the toxicity of the process of deregulation. Tedious, vicious and bone-crushing paperwork would have to be done in preparation for the primary survey, which is projected to be in February of next year. But the administrators have declared that they are willing to commit to the accreditation process, and have enjoined the school’s academic and intellectual manpower to cooperate with them in what could be the biggest project of the school year.