History of the PhD Program

Ph.D. in Business

History

The Cesar E.A. Virata School of Business' PhD Program of the University of the Philippines was established in 1995 to (1) train highly motivated people to conduct frontier research in business and (2) prepare them for a career in the academic sector. Through a rigorous selection process, the program chooses the individual who has a strong inclination to teach and a drive to excel in research.

The selected individual goes through a program of study that is composed of core and field courses. Basic core courses include economics, statistics and mathematics. At the end of his study program, the individual is expected to have published in an academic journal.

The original doctoral program of the then UPCBA was established in 1973. It awarded the degree of Doctor in Business Administration (DBA) to those who satisfy all academic requirements of the program. A review of the program which began with a workshop in March 12, 1994 determined that, with the fast pace of change in the local and international business environment as well as the rapid increase in knowledge, a re-orientation of the DBA program was needed. The doctoral faculty attended the workshop. To provide an external perspective in the review process, respected academics outside UPCBA were invited to participate. During the workshop, a review committee created by then Dean Rafael Rodriguez and co-chaired by Dr. Erlinda Echanis and Dr. Emerlinda Roman was given the task of implementing the planned changes needed by the program. This involved the preparation of curricular proposals to be submitted to the university council for approval.

Keeping in mind that the primary binding constraint is faculty resource, the re-orientation included a redefinition of program objectives, a re-design of existing relevant courses and the deletion of obsolete ones from the curriculum. In March 1995, the University Council approved the curricular revisions proposed by the review committee.

To emphasize the change in the program, the degree offered was replaced by a doctor of philosophy (PhD) degree in Business Administration. The difference was not solely in the name or degree conferred however. Substantive changes were made to form the desired output (i.e., the type of graduate) that was agreed upon in the workshop. While the objective of the DBA program is to train future academics in business with a "generalist" orientation, the revised program tries to provide more depth in a few but selected (sub) fields of business. The changes that are reflected in the individual course content, course sequencing and program of study attempt to ensure that the graduates of the program become comfortable in conducting frontier research in management and/or its related disciplines. The review and redesign effectively steered the original program away from its objectives of turning out graduates that can potentially be industry leaders, academics or top-caliber management practitioners, to producing competent researchers that have strong chances in excelling in an academic environment. (Click here for a list of DBA and PhD graduates.)

Since its inception up to AY 2015-16, the PhD program has admitted 105 students. The first PhD was produced in 1999. As of AY 2014-15, the program has produced 26 PhDs.