The Asian Institute of Management (AIM) said Wednesday it intends to expand its international degree programs next year to produce Filipino students who are globally competitive in the era of digitalization and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
“We’re going to have a lot of low-level programs and hopefully we can scale them up.” [batch’s cap] number,” AIM Professor and Head of the Aboitiz School of Innovation, Technology, and Entrepreneurship Christopher P. Monterola told BusinessWorld in an interview.
“A lot of things will happen next year,” he added.
The first international double degree program established by AIM in 2022 was in partnership with the University of Houston CT Bauer College of Business.
Through this partnership, students enrolled in AIM’s Bachelor of Science in Data Science and Business Administration (BSDSBA) will also receive a Bachelor of Business Administration, Major in Management Information Systems (BBA, MIS) at the University of Houston.
“This is a case of one and one is greater than two. Each of us has unique strengths that we offer through international education experiences that none of us can bring alone,” said University of Houston CT Bauer College of Business Dean Xianjun Geng at a press conference.
“A student from this program has a unique competitive advantage that is truly unmatched,” he added.
The program aims to produce “globally fluent professionals” equipped with the skills to cope with and adapt to the ongoing changes brought about by AI.
“As the head of the business school, I am actually very hopeful at this time that the business school is playing,” said Mr. Geng. “Our dual degree program aims to produce talent who understand both the technical but also the soft skills that are most important.”
In the Philippines, about 12.7 million Filipinos are exposed to generative AI (GenAI), according to the International Labor Organization. However, only 14.9% of firms use AI tools.
The report added that while only 3.6% of jobs have “high exposure to GenAI with a high risk of being fired” across the country, nearly two out of five jobs in the National Capital Region (NCR) are exposed to GenAI, especially in the IT-BPM, finance, and management sectors.
“We know that the economy, industries, and markets are all global, so we need global education,” said Mr. Monterola.
“The number of jobs that will be lost is about 80 million or something because of AI… but the other interesting story is that there will be other jobs that will open up because of this new technology,” he added. “Our hope is that we will be able to go that way.”
The international double degree program currently has 150 students, each cohort up to 50 students.
Mr. Monterola noted that the possibility of increasing the number of students in each cohort is still being discussed with the partner university. “Note that they also have a maximum number of international students they can accept, and we are working on that restriction.”
Possible additions to AIM’s undergraduate courses will include business and entrepreneurship programs, among others. – Almira Louise S. Martinez
