The Bachelor of Education Studies (BES) program was instituted in 2011 to complement teacher education programs (i.e. Bachelor’s programs in Elementary Education and Secondary Education) by developing education professionals for various types of education work other than teaching, such as education research, curriculum design, and instructional materials development. Originally it started with two specializations: Alternative Education Systems (AES) and Instructional Design and Technology (IDT).  In 2018, the program underwent revisions which integrated the AES track and IDT track into one to offer a holistic curriculum.

The BES program was created to address existing societal needs for professionals in the field of education apart from classroom teachings, such as in the area of non-formal, informal, and alternative education systems, technical and vocational education, and training, instructional design and technology, curriculum design and development, and education and policy research. Furthermore, the BES program hopes to address enduring issues in the Philippine education sector, especially relating to access and quality of educational interventions for the marginalized