Far Eastern University (FEU) Institute of Technology will start offering courses in data science, business analytics, and innovation and business starting this school year.
In a statement, FEU said the innovation-focused courses to be offered by FEU Tech include BS Computer Science with specialization in Data Science, BS Information Technology with specialization in Innovation and Business, and BS Information Technology with specialization in Business Analytics. Graduates from these programs can expect to pick up critical skills such as design thinking, marketing principles, project management, software development, and so much more.
According to FEU Tech’s Director of Information Technology Dr. Ace Lagman, programs like Information Technology are designed to ‘future-proof’ students and prepare them for an increasingly competitive job market.
“It’s not enough anymore to leave students with a degree, we want to equip them with skills they’ll be able to use for their whole career,” he said.
FEU said the specializations offered “give students a bird’s-eye view of the changing structure of the business”.
“For example, specializing in business analytics will provide students with an overview of the current trends in information technology that drives businesses,” it said.
Hadji J. Tejuco, an instructor of the college of computer studies and multimedia arts at FEU Tech emphasized the need for data science since “all fields need data science. “It’s the only way to process the data to provide solutions for complex problems. Data fed into the system can help us make future projections too.”
“By using scientific methods, processes, algorithms, and systems they can extract knowledge and apply this knowledge from data across a broad range of application domains,” explained OIC Program Director Computer Science Elisa Malasaga.
Meanwhile, FEU Tech’s Group Chief Innovation Officer and Director of New Ventures Rolan M. Garcia said, “When they put all their learnings together, graduates of our programs can go on to be business development officers, innovation and growth specialists, and even startup founders.”
Garcia added that the university “puts its money where its mouth is” and invests in the startup ideas of its students by using its own internal fund.
“We look at the problems these startups want to solve. All innovation starts with that. Then, we look for validity and scalability,” he said.
FEU Tech placed in four major categories in the latest rankings of the World’s Universities with Real Impact (WURI) Top Global Innovative Universities for 2022. It placed 19th in Progress during the Fourth Industrial Revolution, 30th in Entrepreneurial Spirit, 37th in Crisis Management, and 44th in Student Mobility and Openness. These categories considered a school’s ability to invest and use emerging digital technologies, support student innovation, craft an agile response during the pandemic, and continue collaboration with schools around the world. The WURI rankings notably compared universities all around the world using criteria measuring a university’s contributions to society and innovative approaches to education. Other world-renowned universities like MIT, Stanford, and Harvard are also on the rankings. – Rommel F. Lopez