TL;DR — Southern City Colleges publishes nineteen college programs across seven departments, plus junior high and senior high. Six of those degrees end in a PRC board exam. What the school does not publish is any tuition figure, any scholarship detail, any course list for its Technical Education department, and any program list for its School of Aviation. If you are shortlisting SCC, the phone call to Accounting is not optional.
Founded in 1946, SCC is one of the older private colleges in Zamboanga City. Its own directory listing tells you it has junior high, senior high and college. What the listing cannot tell you is what each of those degrees actually leads to, and that is the part worth thinking about before you enrol.
The seven college departments
The school organises its college offering by department, and publishes each department's program list on its own page. Here is the full set.
Department of Criminology (DCRIM)
Bachelor of Science in Criminology (BSCRIM) — the only program in the department.
BSCRIM is the entry path into the Philippine National Police, the Bureau of Fire Protection, the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, and the NBI, all of which want a Registered Criminologist. The degree ends at the Criminologist Licensure Examination, and that exam is the thing to research before the school. Our BS Criminology guide covers the curriculum and the licence.
Department of Civil Engineering (DCE)
Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering (BSCE) — again a single-program department.
Five years, then the Civil Engineer Licensure Examination. Note that a one-program engineering department is a small unit; ask how many faculty are licensed civil engineers and what the department's recent board performance looks like.
Department of Computing Studies (DCS)
- Bachelor of Science in Computer Science (BSCS)
- Bachelor of Science in Information System (BSIS)
- Bachelor of Science in Information Technology (BSIT)
None of these three leads to a PRC board exam. That cuts both ways: no licensure bottleneck, but also no external benchmark on quality, so employability rests entirely on your portfolio and the school's internship links. The practical difference between the three is emphasis — CS on algorithms and software construction, IS on business processes and systems analysis, IT on infrastructure and applied deployment. BS Computer Science and BSIT break this down properly.
Department of Business and Management (DBM)
The largest department, with six programs:
| Program | What it leads to |
|---|---|
| BS Accountancy (BSA) | CPA Licensure Examination |
| BS Customs Administration (BSCA) | Customs Broker Licensure Examination |
| BS Accounting Information System (BSAIS) | No board exam; accounting systems and audit-support roles |
| BS Business Administration (BSBA) | No board exam |
| BS Office Administration (BSOA) | No board exam |
| BS Real Estate Management (BSREM) | Real Estate Broker and Appraiser licensure exams |
Two of these are worth a second look. BS Customs Administration is unusually well-placed in a port city — Zamboanga runs a busy customs district, and the Customs Broker route is a licensed profession with a narrower talent pool than accountancy. BS Real Estate Management is a genuinely uncommon offering; most schools do not run it as a full degree.
If accountancy is the target, be clear-eyed about the difference between BSA and BSAIS — one ends at the CPA exam, the other does not.
Department of Education and Liberal Arts (DELA)
- Bachelor of Secondary Education (BSED)
- Bachelor of Elementary Education (BEED)
- Bachelor of Arts in Communication (BACOM)
BSED and BEED both end at the Licensure Examination for Teachers, which is the only credential DepEd will hire on. BACOM does not lead to a licence. The school does not publish which BSED majors it runs, and that matters a great deal — a BSED in Filipino and a BSED in Mathematics are different hiring markets. Ask.
Department of Allied Medicine (DAM)
- Diploma in Midwifery
- Bachelor of Science in Midwifery (BSM)
- Practical Nursing
This is the offering most likely to be misread. SCC does not run a BS Nursing program. The Diploma in Midwifery and BS Midwifery both lead to the Midwife Licensure Examination; the diploma is the shorter route, the bachelor's the fuller one, and a diploma holder can ladder up. BS Midwifery explains the difference.
Practical Nursing is not a licensed profession. It does not qualify you for the Nurse Licensure Examination and it is not a bachelor's degree. It has real uses — caregiving and health-assistant work, and a foundation if you later shift into a full nursing degree elsewhere — but if your goal is "RN", this is not that path.
Department of Technical Education (DTE)
The department exists and has its own page. That page publishes no course list. For a technical-vocational unit, where the specific TESDA qualifications on offer are the entire point, that is a real gap. If short courses are why you are looking at SCC, call before you plan around them and ask which TESDA qualifications the department is registered to assess.
Senior high school
SCC's senior high runs four academic strands and three tech-voc strands with named specialisations:
Academic: Humanities and Social Sciences (HUMSS), Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), Accountancy and Business Management (ABM), General Academic Strand (GAS).
Technical-Vocational:
- Home Economics — Caregiving, Food and Beverage Services, Housekeeping, Front Office Services, Wellness Massage
- Industrial Arts — Shielded Metal Arc Welding (SMAW), Electrical Installation and Maintenance, Driving
- Information and Communication Technology — Computer Programming, Computer Systems Servicing, Animation
The tech-voc specialisations line up neatly with the college offering above, which is the useful thing here: an SMAW or Electrical Installation graduate has a direct path into the technical side, and an ICT strand completer moves cleanly into DCS.
The School of Aviation
SCC lists an SCC School of Aviation as an academic unit. The page for it contains a heading and nothing else — no program names, no aircraft, no partner flight school, no requirements. We are not going to describe a program the institution has not described. If aviation is your reason for considering SCC, that is a phone call, not a website visit.
What SCC does not publish
Worth stating plainly, because it affects how you plan:
- No tuition or fee figures. Not per unit, not per term, not per level. There is no rate card on the site.
- No scholarship detail. The Scholarships page names no award and no percentage.
- No campus-to-program mapping. Three campuses are named — Central at Pilar Street, West at San Jose Gusu, East at MCLL Highway, Divisoria — but nothing says which programs run where.
- No admission requirements or entrance exam information for college applicants.
- No board exam performance data for the six licensed programs.
That last one is the gap that matters most. For BSCRIM, BSCE, BSA, BSCA and midwifery, passing rate is the single most useful quality signal, and you will have to ask for it directly. Our board exam passing rates by course sets the national baseline to measure any answer against.
Picking between the overlapping programs
Three pairs inside the SCC catalogue look similar on a list and are not:
- BSA vs BSAIS. Both live in the business department and share early accounting subjects. Only BS Accountancy qualifies you to sit the CPA board. BSAIS is an accounting-systems degree that lands you in audit support, ERP implementation and finance operations roles. Choosing BSAIS because it sounds easier and expecting to sit the CPA exam later is the mistake to avoid.
- BSCS vs BSIS vs BSIT. No licence separates them, so the differentiator is the elective and internship track. Ask which companies the department places students with, and whether the three programs actually diverge in third and fourth year or share most subjects.
- Diploma in Midwifery vs BS Midwifery. Both end at the same licence. The diploma is quicker and cheaper; the bachelor's opens supervisory, teaching and graduate-study routes. Ask whether SCC lets diploma graduates ladder into the degree and how many subjects credit across.
Who SCC fits
A Zamboanga-based student who wants a licensed profession without leaving the city, and who is willing to do the legwork on fees and outcomes by phone. The Customs Administration, Real Estate Management and midwifery offerings are genuinely differentiated for the region. If you are casting wider, compare against the other options in our Zamboanga private schools roundup and the full Zamboanga City directory.
Contact: (062) 991-1847 loc. 117, [email protected].
Sources
- Southern City Colleges, DCRIM Courses — https://scci.edu.ph/dcrim-courses/
- Southern City Colleges, DCE Course — https://scci.edu.ph/dce-course/
- Southern City Colleges, DCS Courses — https://scci.edu.ph/dcs-courses/
- Southern City Colleges, DBM Courses — https://scci.edu.ph/dbm-courses/
- Southern City Colleges, DELA Courses — https://scci.edu.ph/dela-courses/
- Southern City Colleges, DAM Courses — https://scci.edu.ph/dam-courses/
- Southern City Colleges, Department of Technical Education — https://scci.edu.ph/dte/
- Southern City Colleges, Senior High School Tracks and Strands — https://scci.edu.ph/tracks-strands/
- Southern City Colleges, SCC School of Aviation — https://scci.edu.ph/scc-school-of-aviation-2/
- Southern City Colleges, Scholarships — https://scci.edu.ph/scholarships/