About

Undergraduate Programs

Thames International baccalaureate degrees are composed of a core curriculum which all students need to take before they proceed to their professional disciplines. Each degree program offers a set of core disciplinal subjects, professional courses, and specialization electives. The school operates on a trimestral calendar plus a summer term which enables students to complete their undergraduate degrees in three school years.

The school’s core curriculum is composed of the general education subjects as mandated by the Commission on Higher Education and the Thames X modules on Entrepreneurial Formation and institutional core values. These modules are designed for students to receive a well-rounded education and acquire greater self-knowledge to achieve greater personal development. A total of 25 modules comprised the core curriculum covering the major academic disciplines of Languages and Humanities, Science and Mathematics, Social Sciences, and Entrepreneurial Formation.

The Entrepreneurial Formation Program consists of a series of modules that introduce the elements of creative problem solving and design thinking, the entrepreneurial spirit and growth mindset, and social entrepreneurship and leadership. More importantly, this program provides opportunities to enable students to subsequently strengthen these key concepts in them. An integral part of the formation program is for students to participate in structured learning activities which require them to conceptualize, plan, and implement projects with increasing complexity and difficulty. Students are also allowed to experiment and explore new ways of doing things and co-creating new knowledge and solutions.

1. Bachelor of Science in Entrepreneurship

BS Entrepreneurship is an intensive program that consists of 50 modules under three academic clusters: the Core Curriculum, Essential Business, and the Venture Series modules. Students who graduate from the program will develop their entrepreneurial skills and attitudes, acquire necessary business tools and knowledge, and ultimately successfully launch and manage their own business venture. The program offers two tracks of specialization, namely: Start-up and Family Business, wherein special electives will be taken for each track.

Essential Business modules cover advanced marketing, accounting, financial analysis, business communication, business law and taxes, economics, operations management, e-commerce, leadership, social entrepreneurship, strategic management, and innovation.

The Venture Series modules include the following courses:

Opportunity Seeking

This module aims to identify and subsequently capitalize on potential and viable business opportunities taking into consideration the background of each potential entrepreneur as well as prevailing industry and market conditions. The output is to propose a viable business concept

Business Plan 1 & 2

These are modules designed to guide students in preparing comprehensive business plans, business model canvas, operational, and launch plans based on opportunities identified and guide students in initially launching their venture.

Business Plan Implementation 1 & 2

These are a series of modules during which students manage their start-up venture from launch, survival, and even early growth stages based on their business plan. Students regularly consult their mentors throughout and are required to submit reports focusing on their business issues.

Start-Up & Entrepreneurial Journey

A pair of modules that evaluates the journeys of both the new startup venture and the entrepreneur with an eye towards plotting future directions.

2. Bachelor of Science in Business Administration

BS Business Administration is an innovative business program that molds creative marketing professionals and highly effective operations managers. This program develops competent business leaders who are dynamic and pioneering in managing organizations amidst the challenges of a disruptive economic environment. It provides strong curricular foundations on the required competencies and skills of a management specialist linked to current industry demands. Graduates of the BA program are responsible decision makers with high people skills and strong organizational acumen.

The school offers two major or specialized tracks under this degree, namely, Marketing Management and Operations Management. Both specialized fields are integrated with E-Commerce competencies and skills and its professional courses are recognized by partner universities abroad. Internship programs are designed to fit the needs of the students and combine local and international opportunities for work immersions.

Marketing Management

The Marketing Management major equips the student with the necessary knowledge and skills in developing viable marketing plans and designing creative strategies to promote goods and services to potential customers. Students are trained in analytical and critical thinking in evaluating the market environment to be able to create effective approaches. New media formats and platforms are utilized for digital and social media marketing. Professional courses under this specialized track include professional salesmanship, marketing research, distribution management, product and retail management, and advertising.

Operations Management

The Operations Management major prepares the student for a career in developing new, efficient, and effective ways of producing goods and services. Graduates of this specialized field are expected to possess superior management skills and acquire the professional preference for highly efficient processes and procedures to achieve excellent output performance. Students develop an eye for detail and become dynamic managers who seek continuous improvement in the operation systems. They explore and experience actual manufacturing and service operations with focus on logistics and supply chain management. Professional courses under this field include environmental management system, inventory management and control, project management, logistics and facilities management, project management, and productivity and quality tools.

3. Bachelor of Arts in Communication
   

The BA Communication program offers opportunities for highly creative and motivated students in developing their communication skills in the digital age and prepares them to be effective communicators in today’s diverse and evolving business and professional fields. Students develop the abilities to create content and manage the delivery and messaging system of powerful materials. They are expected to acquire strong negotiation skills, write impactful stories, and render ethical judgements in communicating with the audience and the public.

4. General Education pathway to graduate in USA.

This 2 year course undertakes all the core components common to 41 different major degree subjects hence qualifies students to transfer to our partner the University of North Carolina Pembroke to complete their American degree on their campus in a further 2 years. This way students can affordably complete their prerequisite studies online & on-campus with Thames then enjoy focusing exclusively on their specialism at UNCP with optimal facilities & faculty plus unrivaled career prospects. Depending on schedules and demand, a portion of the initial 2 years with Thames is delivered by UNCP online and students have some opportunities to explore/pursue their specialism before committing to their degree major when they seamlessly transfer to from Thames to UNCP’s campus in South Eastern USA.

Professional courses include social media principles and practices, advertising, development communication, integrated marketing communication, multimedia storytelling, digital learning materials development, and multimedia arts subjects with emphasis on business communication and social entrepreneurship.

Tentative Scheduling of Limited Face-to-Face Student Interaction for SY 2022-2023

Regular Terms

Required Facilities

1. 2 Classrooms
2. Library and Media Center (LMC) – combined library and computer lab
3. AV Production Studio
4. Wellness Center – small gym room for physical exercises

School year 2022-2023 will continue to deliver academic classes through a full online modality but will feature limited in-person activities for student interaction, peer learning, faculty mentoring, and experiential learning. For a typical term, in-person sessions for both campus-based and out-of-campus activities will run on a weekly basis, as follows:

Week 1

Day 1. The Fall Term will start with a 3-day activity inside the school campus. As practiced, a Town Hall meeting will be conducted in the morning of the first day of classes with all the students from both the Open Senior High School and the College in attendance. This includes the students from the provinces who will also be required to attend the 3-day opening activities in the Industria campus. To enable the students, faculty, and staff to get to know the new members of the community and reconnect with the existing ones, a school-wide acquaintance party will be held in the afternoon.

Day 2. On the second day, student activities will be facilitated by the Office of Students Affairs in the morning. Students will be assigned to their House classifications (based on their Enneagram personality test) and shall be welcomed by their House leaders and mentors. The Houses will conduct their first meeting of the school year and discuss role assignments and participation in school events and extra-curricular activities. In the afternoon, the co-curricular student organizations will convene and hold their election of officers and plan their activities for the year in connection to their degree program.

Day 3. The third day will be spent with the teachers and learning mentors to discuss and plan the project-based learning approach of each class. Initial ideas of projects shall be submitted by the student groups to their teachers and learning mentors by the end of the day.

Weeks 2 to 4 and 6 to 9

• Full online classes will continue with 70% asynchronous and 30% of the time allotted for live online sessions at most.
• Campus activities will include the weekly activities of the Houses, student organizations, student groups PBL meetings, and in-person consultations with the faculty or learning mentor. This is estimated to take around 2 to 4 hours per day of the use of campus facilities.
• At least one classroom, the Atrium, the Library Media Center, and the Audio-Visual Production Studio are expected to be utilized during these weeks.

Week 5

The whole week will feature our midterm activities which will be in-person and designed with the combination of in-campus and out-of-classroom events. This may include the school’s major extension projects with its partner communities and organizations, the annual recollection and retreat of both OSHS and college students, a one-day forum or conference that can be hosted by the school on social entrepreneurship, skills workshops, and local study tours, exposures, and immersions. These activities shall be planned together with the faculty and each class can identify at least one activity that will serve as the midterm assessment of the class.

Week 10

End-of-term activities will include the 2-day Project Expo and a one-day House Challenge competition.