No Philippine education document defines an "easy course." CHED memorandum orders prescribe minimum units, program outcomes and required hours. The PRC lists regulated professions. Neither ranks difficulty, and neither ever will.
So when people search for the easiest course, they are usually asking one of four different questions — and the four point at different degrees:
- Which course has the least coursework?
- Which course has no licensure exam at the end?
- Which course has the least maths?
- Which course finishes fastest?
Each has a defensible answer. Each carries a trade-off. Here they are with the trade-off attached.
If you mean the least prescribed coursework
A 2025 Philippine Institute for Development Studies review of the ten most-subscribed undergraduate programs found minimum unit requirements running from 122 units for BS Business Administration up to 192 units for BS Nursing. BSBA is the lightest prescribed program of the ten by a clear margin — roughly a year's worth of coursework less than Nursing.
The catch. These are floors, not descriptions. The same study notes that "the norm is for institutions to exceed minimum credit requirements, presumably as a signal of quality." A BSBA at a school that adds thirty units is not a light program. The 122 figure tells you what CHED requires, not what your registrar will require.
What to do about it. Ask for the prospectus and count. That number is comparable across schools; the CMO minimum is not.
If you mean no board exam
The PRC lists 46 Professional Regulatory Boards. Any profession outside those 46 has no PRC licensure examination, so graduation is the end of the formal gauntlet rather than the middle of it.
Among the most-enrolled Philippine programs, the ones with no PRC board include BS Business Administration, the computing degrees, BS Tourism Management and BS Hospitality Management, and Bachelor of Industrial Technology. Outside the top ten, communication, multimedia arts, political science, legal management and most humanities degrees are likewise unlicensed.
The catch. The filter does not disappear, it relocates. Unlicensed fields screen through portfolios, industry certifications, employer examinations, and — for government positions — Civil Service eligibility. That last one matters more than people expect: Republic Act 1080 declares bar and board examinations to be civil service examinations, which hands licensed professionals eligibility automatically. Unlicensed graduates take the Civil Service exam themselves.
Our guide to courses with no board exam covers what replaces the licence in each field, and which professions are licensed by bodies other than the PRC.
If you mean the least maths
This is the most common real meaning, and it is a legitimate constraint rather than laziness. Every Philippine bachelor degree carries Mathematics in the Modern World as one of the eight general education core courses under CMO No. 20, series of 2013 — that one is unavoidable. What varies enormously is how much quantitative work sits in the professional courses after it.
We keep a dedicated breakdown at courses without math, which is the more precise read if this is your actual question.
The catch. Low-maths does not mean low-workload. Several of the least quantitative degrees are among the most reading- and writing-intensive, and licensed fields like nursing carry heavy memorisation loads instead.
If you mean the fastest to finish
Two-year and shorter programs exist and are legitimate: CHED associate degrees, CHED diploma and certificate programs, and TESDA National Certificates. Our overview of two-year courses compares them.
The catch. Short is not the same as light. The Associate in Computer Technology standard requires a minimum of 320 internship hours and lets students enrol in it only after completing 70 percent of their units. The Associate in Radiologic Technology program runs two and a half years, with the final four and a half months spent full-time as clinical education in an affiliated hospital.
Compressed programs also give you less room to recover. In a four-year degree a bad semester is absorbed; in a four-semester program it is a quarter of the whole thing.
The part no course lets you skip
Whatever degree you pick, roughly a quarter to a third of it is already decided for you. CMO No. 20, series of 2013 sets the general education curriculum at a minimum of 36 units: 24 units of core courses, 9 units of GE electives, and 3 units on the life and works of Rizal, which is required by law.
The eight core courses are the same for every undergraduate program in the country:
- Understanding the Self
- Readings in Philippine History
- The Contemporary World
- Mathematics in the Modern World
- Purposive Communication
- Art Appreciation
- Science, Technology and Society
- Ethics
They may be taught in English or Filipino. CHED describes them as "inter-disciplinary and... stated broadly enough to accommodate a range of perspectives," and they carry real reading and writing demands — CMO 20 notes that GE courses under this framework "require higher-level reading, research and writing competencies."
Two consequences for anyone shopping on difficulty. First, 36 units of the same work sits in every program, so the difference between an "easy" and a "hard" degree is smaller than the labels suggest. Second, if writing and reading are your weak point, no course choice rescues you from them.
Who decides whether you pass
Not CHED. PSGs set program outcomes and minimum units; grading standards, grade floors, retention rules and repeat policies are set by the institution, within the academic freedom that Section 13 of Republic Act 7722 grants HEIs over their curricular offerings.
This is why "is this course easy to pass" has no national answer. The things that determine passing — how a professional subject is graded, how many failures trigger deloading, whether a failed subject blocks the next one — are written in the school's student handbook, not in a memorandum order.
Read the handbook before you enrol, not in your second year. Ask specifically about retention requirements in the program you are joining; licensed programs commonly carry stricter ones.
The comparison, with sources attached
| If "easy" means... | Best answer | What it costs you |
|---|---|---|
| Least prescribed units | BS Business Administration — 122 units minimum, lowest of the ten most-subscribed | Schools routinely exceed the minimum |
| No licensure exam | Computing, business, tourism and hospitality, communication, industrial technology | Portfolio, certifications and Civil Service exam replace it |
| Least maths | Varies by program; every degree still carries Mathematics in the Modern World | Often heavier reading and writing load instead |
| Shortest duration | Associate degrees, CHED diploma programs, TESDA NCs | Mandated internship hours, less margin for a bad term |
The thing that decides difficulty more than the course does
The school.
CHED prescribes minimum outcomes and minimum units, then states plainly that HEIs "are allowed to design curricula suited to their own contexts and missions provided that they can demonstrate that the same leads to the attainment of the required minimum set of outcomes, albeit by a different route."
That single provision means the same degree title can be a very different experience at two campuses:
- Total units differ, because most schools go past the minimum.
- Sequencing differs, deciding whether your heaviest term is second or third year.
- Retention rules, grade floors and repeat policies are largely institutional, not national.
- Support differs — consultation hours, tutorial provision, laboratory access.
Two students taking "the same easy course" at different schools can have completely different outcomes. Compare prospectuses. How college programs are organised explains which documents carry the real answers.
What actually predicts whether you finish
Nothing in the paragraphs above matters as much as these:
- Hours genuinely available. A working student in a 122-unit program may have a harder time than a full-time student in a 192-unit one.
- Fit with how you learn. Memorisation-heavy, computation-heavy and studio-heavy programs suit different people. There is no general ranking that survives contact with an individual.
- Whether you can pay through to the end. Dropping out in third year is the most expensive outcome available, regardless of difficulty.
- Whether you actually want the job at the other end. Programs chosen purely for ease have a high abandonment rate, and shifting course costs units and semesters.
A better question than "what is easiest"
Ask instead: what is the lightest program that still leads somewhere I would accept?
That reframing keeps the practical constraint — you need a program you can realistically finish — while removing the failure mode, which is finishing something that leads nowhere you want to go.
Then check three things against the actual school: total units in the prospectus, mandated practicum hours in hours, and what graduates of that specific program are doing now. Our guide to choosing what course to take walks through the decision, and the hardest courses is the mirror image of this article if you want to see where the heavy end sits.
Choosing a course you can finish is not a compromise. Choosing one without knowing what it requires is.
Sources
- Philippine Institute for Development Studies, "Review of CHED Policies, Standards, and Guidelines (PSGs) Pre- and Post-K to 12 Reforms," Discussion Paper Series No. 2025-13 — https://pidswebs.pids.gov.ph/CDN/document/pidsdps2513.pdf
- Commission on Higher Education, CMO No. 20, series of 2013, General Education Curriculum — https://legacy.ched.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/CMO-No.20-s2013.pdf
- Commission on Higher Education, CMO No. 13, series of 2021, Associate in Computer Technology PSG — https://legacy.ched.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/CMO-No.-13-S.-2021.pdf
- Commission on Higher Education, CMO No. 4, series of 2025, Associate in Radiologic Technology PSG — https://legacy.ched.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/CMO-NO.-4-S.-2025.pdf
- Professional Regulation Commission, Professional Regulatory Boards — https://www.prc.gov.ph/professional-regulatory-boards
- Republic Act No. 1080, declaring bar and board examinations as civil service examinations — https://lawphil.net/statutes/repacts/ra1954/ra_1080_1954.html
