TL;DR: Five computing degrees, three CHED memorandum orders. BSCS, BSIS and BSIT all sit under CMO No. 25, series of 2015, share a 146-unit minimum and six common courses, and differ mainly in internship hours (162 for CS, 486 for IS and IT), culminating requirement (thesis for CS, capstone for IS and IT), and an extra mathematics requirement that only CS carries. BSCpE is an engineering programme under CMO No. 87, series of 2017. BSEMC — the degree that actually contains game development and animation — is under CMO No. 02, series of 2014, with a 167-unit outline and a 460-hour internship. None of the five has a PRC board exam.
If you are choosing between computing courses, the fastest way to cut through school marketing is to read the CHED memorandum order behind each one. Schools have real freedom inside those orders, so two BSIT curricula can look different. But the orders fix the things schools cannot change: the minimum units, the internship floor, and whether you finish with a thesis or a capstone project.
This post maps the five degrees to their orders and points you at the detailed guide for each. It deliberately does not repeat those guides.
The Five Programmes and Their Governing Orders
| Programme | CHED policy | Culminating requirement | Internship minimum | PRC board exam |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BS Computer Science (BSCS) | CMO No. 25, s. 2015 | Thesis | 162 hours | None |
| BS Information Systems (BSIS) | CMO No. 25, s. 2015 | Capstone project | 486 hours | None |
| BS Information Technology (BSIT) | CMO No. 25, s. 2015 | Capstone project | 486 hours | None |
| BS Computer Engineering (BSCpE) | CMO No. 87, s. 2017 | CpE Practice and Design 1 and 2 | Set by each school | None |
| BS Entertainment and Multimedia Computing (BSEMC) | CMO No. 02, s. 2014 | Track capstone | 460 hours | None |
That last column is the one people get wrong most often. Computing is not a regulated profession in the Philippines. There is no computing equivalent of the Civil Engineer or Nurse licensure exam, so nothing stands between your diploma and a job except hiring. The closest licensed neighbour is Electronics Engineering, regulated under Republic Act No. 9292, which is a different degree from Computer Engineering despite the overlap in circuits and microprocessors.
The CMO 25 Trio: CS, IS and IT
CHED Memorandum Order No. 25, series of 2015, "Revised Policies, Standards and Guidelines for Bachelor of Science in Computer Science (BSCS), Bachelor of Science in Information Systems (BSIS), and Bachelor of Science in Information Technology (BSIT) Programs," handles all three in one document. It sets a minimum total of 146 units for each, built from general education, six common courses shared across the three, professional courses, professional electives, an additional mathematics requirement, plus PE and NSTP. Centers of Excellence may compress the professional block, which brings the floor to 134 units.
The order also states that Information Technology Education programmes have an internship requirement, that students may enrol in it only after completing 70 percent of the total units in the curriculum, and that CHED prefers a full-time placement formalised in a memorandum of agreement with the host company.
Where the three diverge:
- BS Computer Science is the theory-and-algorithms track. It is the only one of the three that requires a thesis rather than a capstone project, the only one carrying the additional advanced mathematics requirement, and it has the shortest internship at 162 hours — a deliberate trade, more classroom, less placement.
- BS Information Technology is the infrastructure-and-applications track, built around eleven knowledge areas drawn from the ACM Information Technology Curricula. It carries the 486-hour internship and a capstone project.
- BS Information Systems is the same 486-hour, capstone-project shape as BSIT, but with a required business layer inside the curriculum rather than beside it: financial management, business process management, enterprise architecture.
CMO 25 also lists what it considers allied fields for each of the three, which matters if you plan to teach or take graduate studies later. Applied Mathematics, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Electronics Engineering, Entertainment and Multimedia Computing, Mathematics, Physics and Statistics are all named as allied to BSCS, for instance.
BS Computer Engineering Sits Outside That Group
BS Computer Engineering has its own document, CHED Memorandum Order No. 87, series of 2017, issued in CHED's batch of engineering programme standards. That placement is the honest signal about the degree: it is an engineering course with a strong software component, not a computing course with an electronics elective. Its curriculum map names circuits, microprocessors and logic design alongside data structures, software design and computer networks, and it ends in a two-part senior design sequence, CpE Practice and Design 1 and 2, rather than a computing thesis or capstone.
CMO 87 requires an On-the-Job Training course but does not fix a single national hour count for it the way CMO 25 fixes 162 and 486 hours. That means OJT length is a genuine school-to-school question — ask the department, do not assume.
BSEMC Is Where Game Development and Animation Actually Live
CHED Memorandum Order No. 02, series of 2014 promulgates the Policies, Standards and Guidelines for the Bachelor of Science in Entertainment and Multimedia Computing, adopted by virtue of Commission en banc Resolution No. 829-2013. The order names its own purpose plainly: the field "includes the areas of Digital Animation and Game Development," and the standard was written to serve those two sub-sectors of the Philippine IT industry.
The prescribed outline totals 167 units including 8 units of PE and 6 of NSTP, with 27 units of professional courses in whichever track you take — Game Development or Digital Animation-Technology. Internship is required at a minimum of 460 hours, and students may enrol in it only after completing 80 percent of the curriculum's total units, a stricter gate than the 70 percent in CMO 25.
One caveat the order states about itself: it was written "based on the existing 10-year basic education system and on the existing GE program" and does not yet reflect the K-to-12 reform. Current BSEMC curricula therefore carry a smaller general education block and a lower total than 167. Ask each school for its approved unit count rather than quoting the memorandum's total.
If you came here looking for a "BS Game Development" degree, read the game development course guide and the animation course guide — both explain which real degree the marketing name maps to at which school.
The Programmes CHED Has Not Standardised
Not every computing degree on a school's website has a memorandum order behind it. BS Data Science is the clearest example: no Policies, Standards and Guidelines order for it appears on CHED's published memorandum order listings, so there is no national curriculum, no prescribed unit total and no common core. The programme runs on the authority CHED granted that specific school.
That is not a warning against enrolling. It is a warning that you cannot compare two such programmes by checking them against a shared standard. You have to read both curricula yourself, check who teaches the core courses, and ask what graduates actually did next.
The same caution applies to any programme marketed under a name like "BS Cybersecurity," "BS Software Engineering" or "BS Artificial Intelligence." Ask the school which PSG its programme is recognised under. If the answer is CMO 25 with a specialisation track, that is a normal and fine answer. If there is no answer, that tells you something too.
How to Actually Choose
Use the orders to answer three questions about yourself.
Do you want to build things or prove things? CMO 25 gives BSCS a thesis and extra mathematics; it gives BSIT and BSIS a capstone project that CHED explicitly describes as an applied undertaking addressing an existing problem, not a research study with surveys and statistics. That single distinction predicts four years of your life better than any course list.
How much time do you want inside a company before you graduate? 162 hours is roughly a month of full-time work. 486 hours is closer to three. If early industry exposure matters to you, BSIT, BSIS or BSEMC put you there for longer by national rule, not by school preference.
Is hardware interesting to you or merely tolerable? BSCpE is the only one of the five where you cannot avoid circuits, and where the culminating work is a design project in the engineering sense. If you would rather never open a breadboard, the CMO 25 trio is the honest choice.
One thing none of the five will do for you: guarantee a licence. If a licensed profession is what you are after, look at engineering degrees that map to a PRC board, and read our comparison of architecture and civil engineering for how a licensed path actually works.
Ready to find the right school? Browse schools and compare computing programmes across the Philippines on SchoolFinderPH.
Sources
- Commission on Higher Education — CMO No. 25, series of 2015, Revised Policies, Standards and Guidelines for BSCS, BSIS and BSIT Programs
- Commission on Higher Education — CMO No. 02, series of 2014, Policies, Standards and Guidelines for the Bachelor of Science in Entertainment and Multimedia Computing (BS EMC) Program
- Commission on Higher Education — CMO No. 87, series of 2017, Policies, Standards and Guidelines for the Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering Program
- Commission on Higher Education — 2017 CHED Memorandum Orders index
- Commission on Higher Education — 2014 CHED Memorandum Orders index
