Department of Political Science

The Department of Political Science was established on December 10, 1970. It started with an offering of an undergraduate program Bachelor of Arts major in Political Science (AB PoSc). Its enrollees, back then, more considered the program as preparatory to their further pursuit of a degree in Law. It was as a response to such need that would explain the initial orientation of the Department’s undergraduate program. The Department, at one point, was the second biggest Department in the College of Arts and Sciences in terms of student population.

The undergraduate program continued to address the need of those intending to pursue a degree in Law while the persistent thinking was to strengthen the discipline as a social science. New courses reflecting the varied approaches in Political Science were introduced. The research thrust was pushed particularly with the inclusion of a course on Research in Political Science. Societal demands also necessitated a change in the Department’s orientation.

Even as the Department already recognized the need of finally offering a graduate program, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) was to implement its Higher Education Development Project – Faculty Development Program (CHED HEDP – FDP) aimed at improving the quality of higher education in the Philippines by upgrading the qualifications of tertiary level faculty. Thus, in early 2004, the Department was chosen as one of three institutions nationwide to be a delivering institution of the master’s program of the discipline, the two others being those of Ateneo de Manila University and De la Salle University. It is the only one in the Visayas and Mindanao. It was in June 2004 that the Department started to offer the graduate program – Master of Political Science (Non-Thesis).

In 2008, the Department reviewed its curricular offerings with the regional context and faculty expertise in mind. At the graduate level, the Department offered the ladderized and non-thesis (with option for off-campus offering) Master in Public Management and Development. At the undergraduate level, the Bachelor of Arts in Political Science was revised to strengthen research and introduce internship programs. Uniquely, the program now includes specialized tracks or majors, namely, Political Theory and Systems, Public Management and Development, Law and Policy Studies, and International Relations and Foreign Service.