Management Dept. imposes new syllabi; Legal Management to retrieve

The Management Department, headed by Dr. Ma. Cristina Naguit, decided to implement newly revised curricula for management students this school year and bring back the Legal Management degree program. 

In an interview, Dr. Naguit said that they have taken some considerations before finally deciding on the change. This includes suggestions from the Program Advisory Council (PAC) of the School of Business and Accountancy (SBA) held last August and May 2020. 

Some of the changes include progression of subjects by semester, finalizing subjects with laboratory components, and reassessment of the period of completion of practicum to comply with CHED requirement of 600 hours.

Dr. Naguit said that the department took initiatives in amending the 2018-2019 curriculum to update lectures and laboratory components of affected subjects, as well as the order of some subjects. 

With regards to this, she also emphasized that Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (BSBA) programs are only to be taken within three and a half years, and that the earliest that practicum can be taken will be in the summer term. 

She also mentioned that Strategic Management, a subject this fourth year, includes a comprehensive examination requirement for graduating students and will now be applied with the BSBA students who enrolled during 2018-2019.

Five new curricula were also revised under BSBA starting this school year. 

She stated, “The revisions were also based on PAC council suggestions to focus the conduct of most business subjects on practical applications, rather than just the concepts.” 

“Faculty assessments and suggestions were also sought during our departmental meetings of the need to offer foundation subjects such as XFUNAC (Fundamentals of Accounting), XPARCOAC (Partnership and Corporation Accounting), MANORGBEV (Management and Human Behavior in Organization), and MATHBUSFIN (Mathematics and Business Finance) again, since these are no longer offered in the 2018-2019 curricula in anticipation that students took them as ABM (Accounting, Business and Management) subjects in SHS.”

Dr. Naguit added, “One problem we noted last school year was some BSBA students were not from the ABM track, so the need to offer foundation subjects to ensure readiness of the students to take professional subjects specific to their programs.” According to her, the updates on the curricula were just aligned to the previous curricula (2014-2015).
When asked why the other majors have two practicum subjects unlike the Legal Management, the chairperson said, “The four BSBA programs (Business Management, Marketing, Human Resource and Financial) explicitly require six units of Practicum based on the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Curriculum Memorandum Order, while for the Legal Management, the On-the-Job Training is only three units.”

She also highlighted that a consultation with the incoming third year BSBA students was held last July 9 via Zoom and Facebook Live to explain the amendments to their curricula. The student attendees were amenable to the points that were raised. 

On the other hand, Legal Management was brought back because some alumni of the said major are lobbying for it to be offered again. 

In regard to interested shifters, Dr. Naguit said that she encourages them to shift on a case-to-case basis and can inquire to her directly about it. She also mentioned that the interested students’ credentials are being evaluated against the Legal Management curriculum and that the evaluated curriculum is being sent to them, as well as options whether to pursue shifting or not.

She further added, “Students need to understand that the Legal Management program was not included in the 2018-2019 curricula, that is why, we cannot just create a curriculum for upperclass students, that is aligned to their current program of study.”

LAYOUT BY: Chester P. Cortez

PHOTO SOURCE(S): Management Department