Company: University of Asia and the Pacific

Company: University of Asia and the Pacific

Country: Philippines

Project Name: Introduction to People Development- Corporate Social Responsibility (IPD-CSR)

Category: Education

Website:

Objective:

The project aimed to help students understand the role that corporations should play in society and how individual members of private enterprises could best contribute to economic, social and environmental sustainability in ways that were good for business and society.

Details of the project:

IPD-CSR was an innovative, pioneering, three-unit mandatory subject institutionalized in the undergraduate curriculum of the University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P) in 2001. All undergraduate students of UA&P, regardless of specialization/major, were required to take it. This integration of the IPD-CSR into the curriculum of UA&P preceeded the Commission on Higher Education’s institutionalization of CSR subjects in the undergratduate curriculum of colleges in the Philippines. Moreover, CHED’s mandate was limited only to business administration or management majors.

The integration in UA&P was spearheaded in 1997 by the Center for Social Responsibility of the university. An academic and research unit, the Center gave life and character to the People Development Hallmark Program of the school. People development found its expression in various university initiatives, but more concretely in the integration of CSR into the undergraduate curriculum. The CSR curriculum of UA&P strove to provide a broad perspective to the exercise of social responsibility to include not just big business, but also individual members of the academic community and society. It viewed social responsibility not as charity but as an effort to help everyone recognize his own worth and value as a productive member of society.

The IPD-CSR went through several transformations over the years. Research further increased the knowledge and improved the skills of the faculty handling the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) subject. A senior faculty, who was a World Bank consultant, took the lead in orienting and training the team on CSR. Faculty members also attended various trainings, conferences, and courses on CSR, and conducted interactive sessions with Filipino-owned and multinational corporations.

Yearly evaluations by the College of Arts and Sciences of UA&P since 2001 yielded positive results: the students atttributed their heightened consciousness of the poverty situation in the Philippines and what business could do to mitigate it, to the IPD-CSR subject. Since school year 2001 up to the present (SY 09-10), nearly 3200 students had enrolled and been exposed to CSR principles at UA&P, whilst producing their required CSR Business Plans. A number had since become entrepreneurs, corporate managers, CSR proponents and advocates, young professionals and leaders in their own fields. Likewise, the continuous implementation of the subject benefited approximately 350 junior (third-year) students yearly.

In school year 2007-2008, significant changes in the content of the CSR syllabus were made. From merely imparting knowledge on the fundamentals of CSR and its different issues, the Center increased the subject's content to include different types of responsibilities, ethical dilemmas in business, corporate governance, and the like. Real cases on the most alarming CSR issues (i.e., sweatshops, bankruptcy, environmental damage, etc.) happening here and abroad were also discussed. There were also discussions on emerging concerns such as climate change, sustainability reporting, and cross-cutting issues that captured the key elements of human perspective.

Following IPD-CSR’s implementation, certain accomplishments had been attributed to it. One was a tie-up with the World Bank Institute. Created as a supplement to the CSR course, this consisted of online learning, lectures and exams. Students who passed the course received certificates from the Institute.

An inter-school competition dubbed as the “CSR Business Plan Competition” was likewise in partnership with three of the country's top corporations: Smart Communications, the Ortigas Company, and Philippine Daily Inquirer. The competition required the participants/teams to develop a CSR business plan that addressed the corporations' existing business cases.