A live broadcast at the UE Caloocan Gym—via the MISD—of the UE Accounting Lecture by Dr. Washington SyCip last January 23; CBA Caloocan students got to hear the lecture as Dr. SyCip was delivering it from the University Theatre in UE Manila.

“These are bad times. These are also good times.”—Charles Dickens

Under the newly approved Bachelor of Science in Accountancy (BSA) and Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (BSBA) curricula, the students can look forward to a better learning atmosphere this school year.

The highlights of the new BSA and BSBA courses are as follows:

1. Twelve units of English that will prepare them not only to speak good English but write good English as well.

2. Fundamental subjects in Accounting—Acctg 1 & 2 (Accounting for a Sole Proprietorship) and Acctg 103N (Accounting for Partnership and Corporation)—will be taught in six units each to both BSA and BSBA students. The days of treating BSBA students as second-class students (meaning Acctg 103A is equivalent to only 3 units) is over. All business students will be taught the rudiments of Accounting so that all of them will know how to keep the basic accounting books, at least.

3. Exposure to good governance practices and social responsibility.

4. BSBA students will get wider and more comprehensive research exposure with two subjects (for a total of six units) in business research (theoretical and applied).

5. Global exposure will be afforded students in any of global culture, global language or global visual or performing arts.

BSA students can look forward to a better chance of passing the licensure examination for certified public accountants (CPAs). This is so because the integration courses in Financial Accounting, Advanced Accounting, Business Law, Taxation, Auditing Theory, and Auditing Problems totaling 13 units in all have been retained, even if the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) template does not require them. The importance and advisability of integrating the recapitulation of the CPA Board subjects will ensure a comprehensive rounding-up of the most significant lessons embodied in those subjects. The integration lessons provide a purposeful and meaningful review of the subject matters projected to be covered by the CPA examination syllabi and a fitting closure that ensures that topics that may have been missed in the Accounting classes for one reason or another are indeed taken up.

BSBA students can look forward to a better chance of landing a job in business and industry, government service, in professional firms and even the academe because of a truly empowering curriculum. If their Accounting counterparts can boast of being better prepared to hurdle the CPA examination, the BSBA graduates can be more confident in hurdling employment examinations and job interviews. They will have been trained to conduct business research, be confident in carrying conversations in the bilingual tracks—English and Filipino—as well as write in elegant English prose.

The University of the East business students can look forward to better times. When so much bad news seems to prevail over good news, it is refreshing to report and reflect on the good things that came out of these difficult times.