A Philippine higher education institution beneficiary and member of ANTENA Project will present at the Capacity Building in Higher Education Virtual Fair on 27 October 2021. Organised by the Erasmus+ National Offices and the European Education and Culture Executive Agency, the two-day virtual fair will feature outputs from 100 CBHE projects implemented in 68 countries, with funding from 2015 to 2020.

Representing the ANTENA Project, the University of San Carlos, a Philippine Catholic university administered by the Societas Verbi Divini or SVD, will showcase its newly developed context-informed strategic plan for internationalization. USC is the first member of the ANTENA Project to have completed the said output.

The ANTENA Project is a capacity building cooperation project co-funded by the Erasmus + program of the European Commission. The project partners include the Ateneo de Manila University, Benguet State University, Central Luzon State University, De La Salle University, Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Saint Louis University, University of the Philippines, the University of San Carlos, Xavier University–Ateneo de Cagayan, and the Commission on Higher Education.

The ANTENA Project played a significant role in capacitating the International Relations Offices of its HEI members, said Brenette L. Abrenica, External Relations and Internationalization Director at USC. The capacity building process paved the way for the HEI members to think about their own internationalization agenda and the operationalization of such, she added.

Abrenica revealed the USC benefitted from the strategic planning guidebook established by the University of Alicante Institutional Project Management Office. “Coaching sessions with the University of Alicante were optimized as these are sources of learning from the European as well as Philippine institutions,” she added.

The ANTENA Project members, representing different expertise, also contributed inputs to USC’s internationalization strategic plan in the areas of planning and governance, research, and quality assurance. “The co-learning atmosphere made the process more contextualized and more grounded on reality,” Abrenica noted.

The CBHE Virtual Fair 2021 (see PROGRAMME) will also offer training sessions to demonstrate how a CBHE project can support the higher education sector in partner countries. The event, to be streamed on CBHE Virtual Fair’s dedicated Facebook Page and YouTube Channel, will also make way for networking opportunities to enable participants to meet other HEI stakeholders and to get in touch with speakers and presenters.