By Danilo P. Padua, PhD
Last February 16-17, 2018, the first UK-Philippines Transnational Education (TNE) Seminar and Education Fair was held at the Makati Shangri-la. It was a momentous event as it served as the launching pad of 17 joint programmes forged through the efforts of the British Council and the Commission on Higher Education in August 2016. It involves 10 higher education institutions in the Philippines and 9 UK universities.
The The British Council is the United Kingdom’s international organization for cultural relations and educational opportunities.
The term, transnational education, maybe high sounding but it is actually very simple. It is defined by UNESCO as, “All types of higher education study programmes, or sets of courses of study, or educational services (including those of distance education) in which the learners are located in a country different from the one where the awarding institution is based.”
TNE is relatively new to Philippine setting. However, according to former CHED Commissioner Dr. Alex Brillantes, a Baguio boy, some Philippine HEIs are now providing TNE to Asian countries such as Vietnam, Hong Kong, Korea, Ethiopia, Malaysia and Thailand.
British Higher Education Experts such as Dr. Janet Ilieva, Mr. Adrian Day and Ms. Jacqueline Jenkins, believe that the Philippines stands to benefit from this system due to the people’s proficiency in English and the fact that the country is home to a large pool of young, ambitious and globally-inclined students.
During the seminar, attended by some local tertiary institution presidents and other representatives, the UK-PH TNE partnership had been clearly expounded that a well-meaning head of a local HEI would really wonder why his/her school is not a part of the partnership.
The resource persons provided the necessary background information, the opportunities and challenges and the benefits that could be reaped from the internationalization of the Philippine Higher Education Sector. Specifically, what local HEIs can obtain from the UK-PH TNE joint program.
In his keynote address, Dr. Prospero de Vera, the Officer-In-Charge of CHED, expressed his satisfaction of the Joint Development of Niche Programmes (JDNP), also known as TNE Project. It was intended to “help Philippine Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) form alliances and long-term linkages with UK institutions that will enable them to become globally competitive and better able to respond to an ever changing higher education landscape”.
There were ten HEIs that were initially included in the program namely; UP Diliman, UP Los Banos, Ateneo de Manila University, De La Salle University, University of Sto Tomas, San Carlos University, Silliman University, Saint Louis University, Bicol University, and Central Luzon State University. These were assessed, according to De Vera “based on the criteria set by British Council and CHED that focused on the experience of HEIs to implement transnational education (TNE) programs and their capacity for TNE engagement. Selection criteria were based on the institutions’ level of accreditation (at least Level III), capacity and readiness for international partnerships, organizational strategies reflect international outlook and their capacity to attract students who can afford the cost of international degrees. These universities are recognized as Centers of Excellence or Centers of Development and are autonomous, deregulated, and have past and continuing international partnerships”. Each of the ten HEIs were awarded PhP5million to jumpstart their participation. Only four of the ten are SUCs while only SLU represented the whole of Northern Luzon.
They have 9 partner universities from UK which are among the best not only in UK but also in the world. These are: University of Reading, Liverpool Hope University, University of Liverpool, Queen Mary University of London, University of Leeds, Goldsmiths, University of London, Newcastle University, Coventry University, and Cardiff Metropolitan University.
Under the joint program, CHED prioritized graduate degrees that are not currently being offered, or to be improved in local HEIs. These are in the field of: Agricultural Education, Architecture, Fine Arts and Related Programmes, Business Management, Criminal Justice Education, Engineering Health Profession Education, Information Technology, Maritime Education, Science and Mathematics, robotics engineering, public health, oceanography, agriculture – in essence, programs with international components and expertise and designed to respond to the needs of the Philippines.
For her part, Ms. Lotus Postrado, Head of Education of the British Council, expressed full support to the TNE project as it was a pioneering effort on higher education in the Philippines. Certainly, the project gives a rare opportunity for students to access and pursue international and highly specialized degrees right here in the Philippines. Ms Portado stressed that the project was designed to fit the needs of the country now for its better future.
Mr. Nigel Boud, the deputy ambassador of Britain to the Philippines, describes the JDNP as having exciting new areas of study which are not available in the country at the moment. It marks the “start of a long term partnership between the UK and the Philippines in the field of higher education”. Mr. Boud maintains that “Education is increasingly global. Student and academic mobility, cross-border research collaboration, access to the world’s best universities through distance learning and partnerships is increasingly the norm. The level of internationalization now plays a significant part in global university rankings, and for good reason. We face global problems, and global opportunities. Our universities have a key role to play in developing global solutions. And to compete in the modern world our universities need to educate and turn out global citizens”
He firmly believes that UK is an excellent partner as it is the world leader in TNE. To further prove his point, he cited statistics showing that “UK has four of the world’s top 10 universities and 19 in the top one hundred. It has also more universities ranked 5 stars for teaching excellence than any other country, and is number one in the world for research (citations, etc). For many years, it also topped the survey on international student satisfaction, currently at 92%”.
Yes, everything now is without borders, including education. Not opening the sector of ours will surely leave our HEIs far behind. It’s time to make a move and be counted.
Malaysia is reputed to be the leading TNE advocate in Southeast Asia. It has tie up not only with UK universities for this purpose but also to about 17 Australian universities. In fact, it has now its own TNE network in other countries, particularly South East asia.
The ranking of Phillipine universities such as U.P., ADMU, DLSU, and UST in the world, and even in Asia, is continuously sliding. The TNE project should help stem the tide. Since Benguet State University was one of the few HEIs invited to attend the seminar mentioned at the beginning of this piece, it is some sort of encouragement for it to shape up even more to level up to the criteria set for local partner universities. Why not aim for it, BSU!**
