Philippine universities shared their experiences in developing their transnational education (TNE) programmes with their respective UK partners in a dialogue at the De La Salle University last 1 October. Ateneo de Manila University, the University of Santo Tomas and Central Luzon State University talked about their respective challenges in complying with the UK’s quality assurance (QA) standards and the stark contrast to the QA requirements of the Philippine QA system.
Teresa Santos of Ateneo de Manila University said that with the speed of which things evolve in the higher education system there is a need for them to have ‘some room to manoeuvre and innovate to work effectively with partners’ and that their hope is for the existing policies, standard and guidelines on transnational education to be transdisciplinary.
Representing the Commission on Higher Education, from the Office of the Institutional Quality Assurance and Governance were Rita Sescar and Don Francisco and Dr Adlai Castigador from the Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities Commission on Accreditation (PACUCOA).
Dr. Castigador expressed PACUCOA’s openness to support TNE programmes in the Philippines and their serious intent to bridge the current QA gaps and internationalise the Philippine accreditation standards.