The Philippine Higher Education Institution (HEI) partners of ANTENA, a capacity building cooperation project co-funded by the Erasmus + program of the European Commission, recently met with representatives from University of the Alicante and University of Montpellier, and the European Foundation for Management Development at a roundtable discussion held at the De La Salle University in Manila, Philippines on July 15-16, 2019.

Representatives from Xavier University, Central Luzon State University, University of Alicante, and University of Montpellier shared their institutional experiences on internationalization while the Ateneo de Manila University shared the initial findings on the national survey the University conducted with 103 HEI respondents.

Initial findings of the national survey reveal that the top overall barriers to internationalization are insufficient financial support and administrative and bureaucratic difficulties. The top barriers for students and faculty mobility/internationalization are limited interest and involvement and lack of foreign language skills. On the other hand, the top internationalization barriers for administration is limited technical support and lack of organizational development

The NRTD was split into four work groups: a) academic quality through internationalization with speakers from the University of San Carlos and Ateneo de Manila University, b) research of universities in an international context with speakers from Benguet State university, Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology and De La Salle University, c) national context for internationalization with speakers from Polytechnic University of the Philippines and St. Louis University, and d) how to make the most out of the ANTENA Project with speakers from the University of the Philippines and Holy Angel university.

On the last day, the 10 partner HEIs also held their second management meeting where they shared updates on reforms and needs analysis for institutional building, promoting HEI governance reforms, information and dissemination plans, and quality control and monitoring.

The three-year ANTENA Project, from 2019 -2022, aims to enhance academic quality and research of universities in the Philippines through the development of internationalization capacities.

The project is supported by the Philippine Commission on Higher Education through the International Affairs Staff, which in 2016 developed a policy framework and strategies on internationalization of HEIs in order to encourage them to pursue international strategies. CHED stressed the need for HEIs to be responsive to international challenges affecting the global competitiveness of the Philippines.