TL;DR: At CHED policy level the degree is BS Hospitality Management (BSHM), not BSHRM - CMO No. 62, series of 2017 prescribes only BSTM and BSHM, effective Academic Year 2018-2019. The structure is 137 units, or 152 units where a qualified institution offers a named specialisation, including a 6-unit practicum of at least 600 hours. There is no PRC board exam. If you did not take the ABM strand in senior high school, CMO No. 62 requires the school to add five ABM bridging courses.
This guide is about the enrolment decision - what to verify, what to ask, what the memorandum order actually entitles you to. If you want the subject-by-subject walkthrough and career outcomes, we already have those: BS Hospitality Management covers the curriculum in detail, and BS Hotel and Restaurant Management subjects and careers covers where the old HRM title went and what graduates earn.
First, the Title Question
CMO No. 62, series of 2017 states plainly that "the degree programs described herein shall be called: a. Bachelor of Science in Tourism Management (BSTM); b. Bachelor of Science in Hospitality Management (BSHM)." Hotel and Restaurant Management is not among them. The order's effectivity clause sets it from Academic Year 2018-2019, with prescribed minimum curricular requirements implemented from that year, and gives institutions with existing authority three years to fully comply. Its repealing clause provides that any CHED issuance inconsistent with it is deemed modified or repealed. The predecessor issuance, CMO No. 30, series of 2006, had covered tourism management, hospitality management and hotel and restaurant management together; CMO No. 62 carries forward only the first two names.
So what do you do when a school's website says "BS Hotel and Restaurant Management"? Ask one question: what does the diploma say, and what programme does the CHED authority cover? Some schools keep HRM as a marketing label over a BSHM programme. Some keep it as the name of a hospitality specialisation. Either can be fine. What is not fine is a school that cannot answer.
What You Are Actually Signing Up For
CMO No. 62 sets the curriculum structure for both programmes.
| Component | Units |
|---|---|
| General Education courses (per CMO No. 20, s. 2013) | 36 |
| National Service Training Program | 6 |
| Physical Education | 8 |
| Business and Management Education courses (Operations Management; Strategic Management and Total Quality Management) | 6 |
| Tourism and Hospitality Core | 30 |
| Professional Core courses | 30 |
| Professional electives | 15 |
| Practicum, minimum 600 hours | 6 |
| Total | 137 |
| Programme major or specialisation, for eligible institutions only | (15) |
| Total for eligible institutions offering a specialisation | 152 |
The 30-unit Tourism and Hospitality Core is shared between the two degrees and includes Philippine Culture and Tourism Geography; Risk Management as Applied to Safety, Security and Sanitation; Quality Service Management; Legal Aspects in Tourism and Hospitality; Macro and Micro Perspectives of Tourism and Hospitality; Professional Development and Applied Ethics; Multicultural Diversity in the Workplace; Tourism and Hospitality Marketing; and Entrepreneurship in Tourism and Hospitality.
The 30-unit Hospitality Professional Courses block is the hotel-and-restaurant part: Kitchen Essentials and Basic Food Preparation, Fundamentals in Food Service Operations, Fundamentals in Lodging Operations, Applied Business Tools and Technologies, Supply Chain Management in the Hospitality Industry, Introduction to Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Events Management, Ergonomics and Facilities Planning, two Foreign Language courses in the same language, and Research in Hospitality.
Note the two foreign language courses. CMO No. 62 requires that Foreign Language 1 and 2 be in the same language. Ask which languages a school actually teaches - it is one of the more consequential differences between programmes and one of the least advertised.
Four Things to Verify Before You Enrol
1. Whether the specialisation is real
CMO No. 62 permits specialisation only for eligible institutions. Where allowed, "the program nomenclature may bear a specialization name, e.g. BS Hospitality Management specializing in Culinary Arts Management". That adds 15 units and takes the total to 152.
A specialisation you were promised at enrolment but that the school is not authorised to award is the worst outcome in this field, because it shows up on the diploma or does not. Ask for the specific authority.
2. What the practicum arrangement is
The practicum is 6 units, minimum 600 hours. CHED's later issuance on practicum conduct, CMO No. 18, series of 2021, restates the requirement as "a minimum of 600 hours contact time with the accredited host company" and says it should be properly monitored by the institution.
Questions worth asking: does the school place students or do students find their own host company? Is the host accredited? Is the placement paid, unpaid, or does it carry a fee? Is any of it overseas, and who covers what? Two hospitality programmes with identical curricula can differ enormously here, and the practicum is where graduates get hired from.
3. Whether you owe bridging courses
If you took a senior high school strand other than ABM, CMO No. 62 directs institutions to offer five ABM courses defined as specialisation courses in the K-12 ABM strand, at 3 units each:
- Fundamentals of Accounting, Business and Management
- Organization and Management
- Business Marketing
- Business Finance
- Applied Economics
That is 15 additional units that ABM graduates do not carry. It is not a barrier - HUMSS, TVL and GAS students enter this course routinely - but it affects your load and possibly your cost. Ask how the school schedules it. Our ABM strand guide covers what that strand contains if you are still choosing in senior high.
4. Whether TESDA credit carries
CMO No. 62 encourages institutions to follow the Ladderized Education Program under Republic Act No. 10647, the Ladderized Education Act of 2014, creating an interface between TESDA technical-vocational qualifications and the BSHM and BSTM curricula. The order also points to assessment and certification by the Tourism Professional Certification Board as part of a student's portfolio.
In practice this means a student who already holds TESDA certificates in cookery, food and beverage services, housekeeping or bartending may be able to have some of that recognised - but only if the school actually implements the ladderised programme. Ask whether it does, and get the answer in writing before you assume credit. Our guides on ladderized programs and TESDA courses cover how that system works.
There Is No Board Exam - Here Is What Replaces It
The PRC lists 46 Professional Regulatory Boards. Hospitality, hotel and restaurant management, and tourism are not among them. There is no licensure examination for this field, no professional licence and nothing to renew.
What replaces it, practically:
- TESDA National Certificates in the specific operational skills, which employers recognise
- Certification through the Tourism Professional Certification Board, which CMO No. 62 itself points to
- The practicum record, which is closer to a two-semester job interview than a school requirement
- Language ability, which is why the two same-language foreign language courses are in the curriculum
Because there is no licensure exam acting as a quality floor, school choice carries more weight here than in board-exam courses. Our list of courses with board exams shows which degrees end in a licence and which, like this one, do not.
The ASEAN Angle Most Brochures Skip
CMO No. 62's own rationale sets out why the curriculum looks the way it does. The order notes that demand for tourism and hospitality workers "extends even beyond Philippine borders with the advent of the ASEAN Community", and that several Mutual Recognition Arrangements were signed by ASEAN member states, "including the ASEAN MRA for Tourism Professionals, signed last November 2012". That arrangement allows member states to mutually recognise or accept aspects of one another's conformity with assessment results for tourism professionals, through the Common ASEAN Tourism Curriculum. CMO No. 62 also directs institutions to consider that curriculum and the portability of certifications from recognised government agencies such as TESDA when developing learning outcomes.
Read that carefully, because it is routinely oversold. The arrangement is about recognition of competency assessments across ASEAN, not an automatic right to work in another country. It makes your Philippine certification legible abroad. It does not replace a visa or a work permit.
Bottom Line
The hotel and restaurant management course you are looking at is, in CHED's framework, a hospitality management programme built to a 137-unit structure with a 600-hour practicum, no board exam, and an optional specialisation only qualified institutions may award. The decisions that actually change your outcome are the practicum arrangement, whether the specialisation is authorised, which foreign language you will study, and whether TESDA credit carries. Get those four answers in writing before you pay a deposit, and the rest of the programme is broadly comparable across schools.
Comparing programmes? Browse schools on SchoolFinderPH to see hospitality and tourism offerings by city.
Sources
- CHED CMO No. 62, series of 2017 - PSGs for BS Tourism Management and BS Hospitality Management (official PDF)
- CHED CMO No. 18, series of 2021 - Guidelines on the Conduct of Practicum Activities for BSTM and BSHM (official PDF)
- Commission on Higher Education - CHED Memorandum Orders, indexed by year (1994-2026)
- Professional Regulation Commission - Professional Regulatory Boards
