BS IT and Computer Science in the Philippines for Foreign Students

TL;DR: A Philippine BSIT or BSCS is governed by CHED Memorandum Order No. 25, series of 2015, which sets a minimum of 146 units and a required internship of 486 hours for BSIT and BSIS or 162 hours for BSCS. Published tuition at private universities runs roughly ₱50,000 to ₱110,000 per term; UST publishes ₱72,439 in total first-term fees for a first-year computing student in AY 2026-2027. Foreign-student premiums, where they exist, are small and flat: Silliman charges ₱5,809 a semester, Benilde ₱9,090 a term, and De La Salle charges nothing extra. Free tuition under RA 10931 is restricted to "All Filipino students" by the text of the statute. And the published immigration rules do not grant a student visa holder the right to work.

What CHED requires

CHED Memorandum Order No. 25, series of 2015 sets the revised policies, standards and guidelines for BS Computer Science, BS Information Systems and BS Information Technology. It is the document that tells you what any accredited Philippine programme in these fields has to contain.

The unit structure is the same across all three:

CMO 25 adds that Centers of Excellence may run professional courses, electives and the additional mathematics requirement at a minimum of 48 units instead of 60, giving a minimum total of 134 units.

The real difference between the three degrees shows up in two places. Section 8.4 requires a thesis for BSCS and a capstone project for BSIS and BSIT. Section 8.3 sets the internship: "The minimum number of internship hours (preferably in a full time capacity) for the BSIS and BSIT programs is 486 hours and 162 hours for the BSCS program." Students become eligible to enrol in the internship "after completing 70% of the total number of units in the curriculum", and CMO 25 expects the learning expectations to be set out between the school and the industry host in a memorandum of agreement or understanding.

If your reason for studying abroad is to build a work history, that 486-hour figure is the number to plan around, and it points at BSIT or BSIS rather than BSCS.

Programme length is not fixed by the order in years, but four years is standard at semester-based universities; UST's own BS Computer Science page states four years.

What it costs, where the school publishes a figure

Price transparency in Philippine higher education is patchy. Here is what we could read directly from the universities' own published materials. Conversions use the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas reference rate for 20 August 2026 (US$1 = ₱61.8660).

UST publishes its College of Information and Computing Sciences schedule of fees as an image table rather than as text, headed "SCHEDULE OF FEES, FIRST TERM, AY 2026-2027", with tuition at ₱1,959 per unit for Levels I to III. Silliman's second-semester estimates for the same first-year load are ₱49,365.40 for BSCS and ₱48,900.40 for BSIT, so a first year lands around ₱104,000 before the foreign-student add-ons below.

Benilde's figure is drawn from its full AY 2025-2026 undergraduate tuition table, which prices BS Information Systems at ₱100,738 per term for Filipino students and ₱109,828 for international students. Note that Benilde runs a trimester calendar, so per-term figures are not comparable with semester figures without adjusting for the number of terms.

The foreign-student premium is real but small

Three published patterns, all from the institutions themselves:

• Silliman University lists, in its university-wide schedule of fees for SY 2026-2027, a "Foreign Student's Fee (foreigners – every semester)" of ₱5,809.00 and an "ACR Verification Fee (foreigners – every semester)" of ₱726.00. That is about US$106 a semester on top of tuition.
• Benilde applies a flat ₱9,090 per term to international students across every undergraduate programme in its table, computing degrees included.
• De La Salle University answers the question directly in its international student FAQ: "Is the tuition fee different for international and Filipino students? No, it is the same."

So the sticker shock, if there is any, comes from the base tuition rather than from a foreign surcharge. That is a materially different situation from countries where international fees are a multiple of domestic ones, and it is one of the more concrete arguments in favour of the Philippines that we cover in is the Philippines good for international students.

Free tuition does not apply to you

State universities are the cheapest option in the Philippines, and the reason is Republic Act No. 10931, the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act. Its Section 4 reads: "All Filipino students who are either currently enrolled at the time of the effectivity of this Act, or shall enroll at any time thereafter, in courses in pursuance of a bachelor's degree, certificate degree, or any comparable undergraduate degree in any SUC and LUC shall be exempt from paying tuition and other school fees for units enrolled in", subject to passing the institution's entrance and retention requirements.

"All Filipino students" is the operative phrase, and the Act's other benefits are scoped the same way. A foreign national at a state university pays. What that rate is varies by institution, and most do not publish it, so ask the registrar in writing before you build a budget around a state university.

Schools that publish nothing

We checked the sites of AMA University, University of San Carlos, Asia Pacific College, iACADEMY, FEU Institute of Technology, National University and STI College. All of them publish programme information for computing degrees; none published a tuition rate we could read. Mapúa University publishes fee tables for BS Computer Science and BS Information Technology for SY 2026-2027, but as embedded images we could not extract reliably, and its foreign-student admissions page describes the process without stating a separate rate.

That is the norm rather than a warning sign, but it does mean the only real comparison is one you assemble from written quotes. Our cost of studying in the Philippines for international students covers the living-cost side of the budget, and the universities accepting international students guide is the place to start a shortlist. The same transparency problem shows up in other sectors, at much larger amounts: see what flight school costs in the Philippines.

Visa: the 9(f) route

A full bachelor's degree runs on a student visa, not a study permit. The Bureau of Immigration states that the 9(f) is for "All foreign nationals who are at least 18 years old and shall take up a course of study higher than high school at a University, seminary or college."

BI's published fees are ₱9,720 in total for conversion to a student visa — ₱2,000 application, ₱1,000 implementation, ₱1,000 visa and ₱1,000 ACR I-Card — plus US$50 for the card, and ₱4,020 plus US$50 for an extension. The full document set and sequence are in our 9(f) student visa guide.

De La Salle's international FAQ makes a useful process point: "except for Student Visa and Special Study Permit, an approved visa is required prior to enrollment at DLSU." In other words the student visa is typically converted after you are accepted and in the country, which is why enrolment and immigration have to be sequenced with the school.

Can you work, and can you do a paid OJT?

This is where the published record is thinner than students expect, and we are going to be precise about what is and is not verifiable.

What is published. BI's 9(f) student visa page says nothing at all about employment. That is a silence, not a permission. Separately, BI publishes a Special Work Permit for "A foreign national who shall engage in gainful employment for three to six months", priced at ₱6,440 plus US$50 for the ACR I-Card. The SWP commercial checklist enumerates the activities it covers, and the list includes "Trainee/s assigned in government instrumentalities, government owned controlled corporations (GOCCs) and private entities" and "Lectures, researchers, trainers and other pursuing academic work, who are assigned in schools, universities, educational and research institutions, government agencies and other entities (with or without compensation)". So the permit system does contemplate trainees, and it contemplates them needing a permit.

What we could not verify. The Department of Labor and Employment's site was inaccessible to us this session, so we could not read the current department order on the Alien Employment Permit or check whether students on curricular OJT appear in its exemption list. Widely repeated claims that unpaid curricular internships are automatically fine are not something we can source to a primary document, so we are not going to repeat them as fact.

What to actually do. Ask the university's international student office which permit it files for OJT placements and whether it has done so before for your nationality. Get the answer in writing. Working without the right permit is the kind of mistake that ends a visa, and a required 486-hour internship is not worth improvising around.

Language of instruction

Instruction at the universities in this article is in English in practice. We are flagging, though, that we could not source a CHED policy this session making English the sole medium of instruction, and CMO 25's general education block includes 9 units of English alongside 6 units of Filipino. Expect English lectures and materials; expect some Filipino in the general education courses; and check the specific programme page rather than assuming.

If English is the constraint rather than the coursework, the sibling guide to hospitality and culinary schools for international students covers a route where the same question comes up, and the Philippines' ESL sector exists largely to solve it.

After graduation

If you want to stay and work, the published route is the 9(g) pre-arranged employment visa, which BI describes as being for "Foreign nationals who are proceeding to Philippines to engage in any lawful occupation, whether for wages or salary or other forms of compensation."

BI's published conversion fees for a principal applicant at a non-top-1,000 corporation are ₱10,130 for one year, ₱17,170 for two and ₱24,210 for three, plus US$50 to US$150 for the ACR I-Card depending on validity. Extensions are ₱7,060, ₱13,100 and ₱19,140 for the same periods. The employer petitions; you do not apply alone.

The labour-side requirement, an Alien Employment Permit from DOLE, is the piece we could not verify from DOLE's own site this session. Every employer that hires foreign nationals will know the current rule. Ask them to show you the issuance rather than taking a recruiter's summary of it.

Sources

• CHED Memorandum Order No. 25, series of 2015, PSG for BSCS, BSIS and BSIT
• Republic Act No. 10931, Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act (Official Gazette)
• University of Santo Tomas, Tuition and Fees
• University of Santo Tomas, BS Computer Science programme page
• Silliman University, Estimated Tuition Fees
• Silliman University, Schedule of Fees
• De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde, Tuition Table of Payment for Undergraduate Programs AY 2025-2026
• De La Salle University, International Students FAQ
• Bureau of Immigration, Student Visa 9(f)
• Bureau of Immigration, Special Work Permit (Commercial)
• Bureau of Immigration, Special Work Permit commercial checklist
• Bureau of Immigration, Pre-arranged Employment Visa 9(g)
• Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, Reference Exchange Rate Bulletin, 20 August 2026