Last 26 May 2015, the British Council entered into an operational alliance agreement with the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to collaborate on the review and finalization of CHED’s policies, standards and guidelines on Transnational Higher Education (TNE).
The agreement, signed by CHED’s Chairperson Dr Patricia Licuanan and Nicholas Thomas, Country Director, in the presence of His Excellency Ambassador Asif Ahmad, UK Ambassador to the Philippines, is a confirmation of British Council’s commitment to support CHED in creating regulatory conditions conducive for successful TNE operations in the Philippines. Among others, the British Council-CHED collaboration on TNE will set out guidelines on quality assurance, registration of TNE services, mechanics for recognition of foreign higher education institutions and courses of study and Philippine universities engaged in TNE. A Guidebook on TNE will form part of the outputs of the collaboration.
Dr. Licuanan highlighted the urgent need to establish regulatory mechanisms as the country is increasingly becoming a study destination amongst its neighbours for learning in English and other professional degrees. Ambassador Ahmad shared that there are a growing number of UK companies that choose to setup some of its operations in the Philippines, and the government’s efforts towards upgrading the country’s education systems and quality of its future workforce would be mutually beneficial for the growth of Philippines and the UK.
The CHED collaboration on TNE is part of British Council’s work in the Philippines on internationalization of higher education. A research on the Opportunities and Challenges on Internationalization of Higher Education in the Philippines, commissioned by British Council, will be released in August 2015.
