Strategic directions for CEM-UPLB [College of Economics and Mgt.-University of the Philippines Los Baños] instruction, research and extension service programs towards excellence and relevance

The professorial chair lecture presents benchmarks and analyzes trends in the fields of economics (ECON), agricultural economics (AECO), and agribusiness management and entrepreneurship (ABME). It is also provides an assessment of the instruction, research, and public service programs of the College of Economics and Management (CEM) and recommends future directions towards excellence and relevance. In its 95 years of existence and first offered by the Department of Agricultural Economics (DAE) in Asia, the AECO field has been the foundation by the program's offering in many Asian countries as well as in the Philippines. Highly complemented by research, extension, and consultancy, it has provided national and international. Nevertheless, the AECO program needs to remain relevant, competitive and open to opportunities and challenges brought about by recent developments. These include the factors affecting the competitive ranking of AECO schools and universities worldwide, dynamic changes in the scope of the field, strong complementation with research and extension, globalization and internationalization of EACO education the growing interdisciplinarity of the field, and national and regional development like the K to 12 programs and ASEAN University Network. AECO in DAE-CEM remains the academic leader in the field in the Philippines. In structure, content and academic requirements, the BS, MS, and PhD programs generally remain competitive with introducing more and new courses and teaching methods to reflect recent development in analytical tools vis-a-vis other sectors in the context of the global economy. The research and public service agenda needs to be re-aligned accordingly. The strategic institutional development of DAE requires remaining the department into Department of Applied Agricultural Economics (DAAE), a renewed vision and mission, a new action and implementation plan with benchmarks and indicators for monitoring, faculty and staff development, alliances and effective networking, and a re-designed administrative structure for organizational agility. The specific courses of action for instruction, research, extension/public service and resource generation are presented in this paper. The undergraduate agribusiness program of the Department of Agribusiness Management and Entrepreneurship (DAME) is a 45-year old program that has produced alumni who now hold key positions in the business and government sector. The program has undergone a series of revision from relevant and responsive to the labor market needs not only nationaly but internationally. although, enrollment has been fluctuating in the past 10 years, this program has remained important in producing graduates that are serving the manpower requirements of the agribusiness sector. This program has continuously taken the lead in agribusiness education in the ASEAN region. The Master of Management Program of DAME has remained viable in the last 19 years. This has continuously served the managerial manpower needs in the region. The program offerings of DAME are consistent with the benchmark universities in the US in terms of technical, economics, and management courses. The research and extension/public service activities of the department serve to strengthen both BSABM and MM as research results are oftentimes translated into education materials which enhance the teaching of agribusiness, entrepreneurship and management. Cognizant of the tremendous potentials in the business sector and the increasing importance of entrepreneurship in education, DAME is gearing up towards the alignment of its curricular programs, and research and extension efforts towards food and agribusiness system needs and entrepreneurship. This calls for allocation of more resources to further enhance the delivery of education, research and extension/public services. The details of the strategic directions and options are provided in the paper. Though the BS and MS programs of the Department of Economics were instituted barely 30 years and 15 years ago, respectively, they fare comparably well against benchmark universities in the US and Asia particularly in terms of breath and depth. This is the result of conscious efforts to regularly revise the curricula in order to ensure continued excellence and relevance. Economics is a cross-cutting field, and it will always be relevant and useful. Thus, there is always reason for improving our curricular offerings especially in terms of flexibility amidst new educational development such as the K+12 and the ASEAN 2015. The same is voiced out by former students who are now very well placed in the domestic and international labor markets, occupying a wide array of positions in the academe, government and private sectors. In general, while the undergraduate program continuous to show relatively robust trends in enrollment and overall student performance, the graduate program can benefit more strategic courses of action. Furthermore, while the Department has quite a good showing in the performance of its instruction and research functions, the extension/public service function as well as the resource generation capacity can be given a boost. Details toward this end are discussed in this paper.