The Philippine Commission on Higher Education is playing an active role in the Internationalization of the Higher Education in the Philippines Network (ANTENA) project, led by the University of Alicante in Spain with the support of the University of Montpellier in France and the European Foundation for Management Development.

Atty. Lily Frieda M. Milla, CHED International Affairs Staff (IAS) director and concurrently the OIC deputy executive director of the Commission, said her office is pushing for the internationalization of the country’s higher educational institutions (HEIs) to enable them to compete in the global arena. Her office is tasked to create a policy roadmap for the internationalization of the country’s universities. 

“We are glad to tell you that we now have a roadmap on internationalization especially in the ASEAN region,” Milla said at a press briefing held on September 3 in the CHED office. She noted CHED could now design a program that is at least within the ASEAN standard. “This will make them (HEIs) competitive inside and outside the Philippines,” she said.

Seeing value in the ANTENA project, Milla said CHED has even set aside a counterpart amount to augment the grant received by the partner HEIs from the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union and to make sure more specific internationalization objectives may be achieved. She noted, “internationalization is process, an outcome, and a mindset.”

John Luis D. Lagdameo, former director for international relations at Ateneo de Manila University, who was also present during the press briefing, noted that there now a need for Philippine higher educational institutions (HEIs), with their unique institutional brands, to position themselves as contenders in the global arena.  “This is an opportune time for Philippine universities as many Filipinos will gain from the outside, notwithstanding the limitations of the country,” he said. “ANTENA can create the network of international universities that can bring internationalization to the Philippines.”

With the support of the ANTENA project, CHED also eyes to enhance the country’s credit recognition system, and increase international research activities as well as the number of specialized staff that can handle international matters.

For its short-term goal, the ANTENA project seeks to increase awareness of barriers to credit recognition and international mobility of students and academic staff as well as international research; increase awareness of different internationalization strategies and models; increase awareness of different internationalization practices and managerial skills; build capacity through workshops; improve of IROs of consortium partners in terms of staff and equipment;  and increase cooperation between top-level management staff at a national level on internationalization matters.

The long-term goals of the ANTENA project include strengthening of the internationalization of the Philippine HE sectors; increased number international activities of the Philippines HEIs; improvement of IROs in non-partner Philippine HEIs; benefits brought about by the new services from trained IROs; and increase cooperation between top-level management staff at a national level on internationalization matters.

Partners of CHED in the project are 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, and University of San Carlos and Xavier University – Ateneo de Cagayan.

Published by Janvic Mateo (The Philippine Star) - September 5, 2019 - 12:00am
https://www.philstar.com/other-sections/education-and-home/2019/09/05/1949114/eu-backs-internationalization-philippines-higher-education-institutions