Far Eastern University (FEU) has joined the NetSuite SuiteAcademy program, an educational program designed to bring cloud-based business management solutions to university classrooms worldwide.
The FEU Institute of Accounts, Business and Finance (IABF) incorporated NetSuite cloud ERP, including accounting and auditing functionality, into the undergraduate degree curricula in the summer 2013 for third- and fourth-year students pursuing business degrees. The program gives the FEU IABF new flexibility for anywhere/anytime learning over the web that liberates students and faculty from the need to access on-premise software in classrooms and labs, and broadens education beyond campus boundaries to the home, while traveling, from a coffee shop and more.
“We see the cloud as the future of software. Introducing cloud-based business instruction through NetSuite SuiteAcademy canenable us to give students highly sought-after skills that today’s employers covet as more companies migrate to NetSuite cloud business management,” said Celito C. Macachor, Dean, FEU IABF. “Being in the cloud, NetSuite makes anytime/anywhere learning and education possible for both our students and faculty.”
Driven by the growing global demand for teaching NetSuite cloud solutions in tertiary education programs, the SuiteAcademy program puts NetSuite software and academic-developed curriculum in the hands of students, giving the next generation of business leaders a competitive advantage by having worked with one of the world’s fastest growing financial management solutions and the recent winner of Frost & Sullivan’s Asia Pacific’s Cloud ERP Vendor of the Year for 2012 award for cloud leadership excellence, exemplary performance and growth.
Building NetSuite into FEU IABF curricula is part of the transformation to provide future business leaders with real world cloud software experience, providing students and teaching staff with practical IT skills that are aligned to the global shift towards cloud computing. The curriculum isalso expected to offer experience across core disciplines built into NetSuite’s single business management suite, including ERP, accounting, supply chain management and Ecommerce.
Over the several months prior to the planned summer 2013 SuiteAcademy launch, FEU worked with NetSuite to prepare curricula, including week-long training for instructors, with a focus on providing students with practical, hands-on experience with NetSuite’s modules, as well as a better understanding of how it supports process flows and revenue cycles throughout an entire organization. FEU, one of the largest schools to offer business and accountancy degrees in the Philippines, reports an 80 percent success rate among students taking board exams to become a CPA (certified public accountant).
“FEU has staked out a leadership position in preparing students for a fast-changing business world with hands-on instruction of the world’s leading cloud financials/ERP software suites,” said James Dantow, NetSuite VP for Worldwide Support and GM for the Philippines. “FEU’s partnership with SuiteAcademy cannot only make FEU graduates more appealing to employers, it makes the university itself more appealing to students looking for an outstanding business and accountancy education, and the practical cloud computing experience that employers demand.”
NetSuite has been working with universities to introduce cloud computing into their curricula since 2009. Since officially launching SuiteAcademy in 2011, the program has grown 83 percent, with more than 100 tertiary institutions around the world now teaching NetSuite.
The NetSuite cloud business solution is predominantly introduced in the third and fourth years of degree, and MBA programs, meaning that the next generation of managers, entrepreneurs, and business professionals can come to the job market with a stronger understanding of business operations and a clear understanding of the power of cloud computing.
