A national push for TNE: the Philippine experience

A bold statement

In August 2019, the Philippines passed the Transnational Higher Education Act, which allows foreign universities to provide education services in the country through partnering with a local institution. This was a sign to the world of the country’s commitment to strengthen its internationalisation strategy.

This welcome development came four years after the Philippine Commission on Higher Education (CHED) lifted the moratorium on transnational education programmes from 2012 to 2015. Combined with the passing of the Act, the conclusion of the TNE Links Programme that gave rise to 17 UK-Philippine postgraduate degrees helped to give TNE much-needed traction in the country. Launched in 2016, the TNE Links Programme was a £1.15 million collaboration between the British Council and CHED. It provided capacity and funding support for universities in the Philippines to develop TNE with the UK.

Examples of capacity building through the TNE Links Programme

University of the Philippines Los Banos

Local universities are not only motivated by the Philippine government’s grant covering the cost of setting up TNE, but also the opportunity to work with the UK and continue their capacity development. For Anna Firmalino, International Linkages Director of the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), the training by the UK Quality Assurance Agency was helpful not only in developing their PhD by Research with the University of Reading, but also in enhancing their institutional quality assurance systems.

With the new university partnerships, from the outset there had been a strong focus on co-creating programmes in subject areas that were not widely available in the country. This was a conscious decision on the Philippines’ part that TNE with the UK is an excellent opportunity to learn from universities that are at the forefront of various disciplines and following this, to build local expertise in niche areas critical for national development in the Philippines. Some of the courses developed include: Sustainable Food Systems, International Public Health, Oceanography, Meteorology, and Data Science.

Miriam College, Philippines

Miriam College, through their partnership with Goldsmiths, University of London, introduced an MA in Designing Education, a dual awards graduate degree programme, in the Philippines—a unique addition to the Education programmes which remain one of the most in-demand courses locally.

The culture of communal capacity building ingrained in the Philippine education sector meant that local universities that have benefited from partnerships with UK institutions had the responsibility of paying these learnings forward to their peers. For the universities participating in the TNE project, this included a suite of training on the UK’s cutting-edge higher education structures and processes that they cascaded to their home institutions and other universities. This ensured that we sustained the project benefits and further introduced innovation in the country.

This resonated strongly with Marose, who was not only part of the group behind the success of their TNE, but also became a student on the programme she helped design.

Engagement with partner universities in the UK: what does the future hold?

In the same vein, Anna from the University of the Philippines Los Baňos (UPLB) shared that from an institutional perspective, the process of developing TNE compelled them “to institutionalise the mechanism for programme and partnership development with foreign institutions,” accelerating the establishment of guidelines for engagement with external partners. These guidelines were eventually implemented on all campuses of the University of the Philippines system.

Through her experience working with UK partners, Anna’s role in cascading this new knowledge transcended from institutional to national policy as she has been involved in crafting and implementing rules and regulations for the Transnational Education Act.

Nonetheless, their engagement with their partner universities marked only the beginning of their partnerships with the UK. UPLB has since developed a teacher training programme with the University of Liverpool and is in talks with the University of Reading for research and extension collaborations. Miriam College’s work with Goldsmiths has yielded a research project through the Newton Fund.

Other Philippine universities involved in the TNE Links Programme also explored TNE prospects with the UK on their own, which attest to their readiness to expand their international collaborations. Some have had their institutions included in international league tables, and in 2021, we saw the largest increase of Philippine universities in QS World University Rankings: Asia.

The future of UK-Philippines TNE Collaboration

Success stories such as these inspire local universities to build connections with the best of the UK. The British Council in the Philippines has since renewed our collaboration with the Philippine Commission on Higher Education to develop five new TNE programmes with a new cohort of Philippine universities starting in 2021.

The new project, called Access and Competitiveness through Internationalisation of Higher Education (ACT-IHE), sits under the British Council’s Going Global Partnerships programme. Through ACT-IHE, we aim to further develop the local TNE ecosystem, support the implementation of the new law and build on the increasing number for foreign partnerships.

It is through the UK’s educational excellence, combined with the British Council’s global insights, connections and long-standing relationship with the national government and universities, that we are able to help shape international education in the country. We continue to increase the standards of Philippine higher education to an international level and to support local students, researchers and academics in achieving the qualifications they need to maximise their potential. This has resulted in a growing interest for UK-Philippine partnerships, all of which will bring fresh opportunities in the years to come.

This blog is written by Pierre Pecson, British Council in the Philippines.