LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – The 1st National Conference on Internationalization of HEIs in the Philippines will be held at Saint Louis University, Baguio City from July 11-15, 2022. The conference is being organized by Project ANTENA, a capacity building project co-financed by the European Union’s ERASMUS+ programme and being coordinated by the University of Alicante in Spain.
During the conference, a network for the internationalization of higher education institutions (HEIs) in the Philippines will be fully formalized and recognized through the signing of letter of commitments by the presidents and representatives of a network of ten Philippine partner HEIs under the coordination of the International Affairs Staff (IAS)of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED).
The ten partner HEIs under the ANTENA internationalization network are comprised of five private universities: Ateneo de Manila University, De La Salle University, Saint Louis University, University of San Carlos, Xavier University; and five state universities: Benguet State University, Central Luzon State University, Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute, Polytechnic University of the Philippines and University of the Philippines.
According to CHED-IAS Atty. Lily Frieda M. Milla, the formalization of the network assures its sustainability in the foreseeable future and gives local ownership to the outputs of the network, enabling Philippine institutions to work independently. The conference will boost the visibility of the network at the national level, increase its membership, and support, disseminate information generated from the project, and promote policy making conducive for internationalization of Philippine HEIs.
Aside from the representatives from the 10 HEIs, the national conference will be attended by representatives from the University of Alicante, University of Montpellier, and European Foundation Management Development (EFMD) and panel of experts from the CHED, through its IAS. The national conference is also open to international relations officers (IROs) of all interested Philippine HEIs.
According to the CHED-IAS, which is co-funding the national conference on HEI internationalization, and Benguet State University and Saint Louis University, co-hosts, a networking session will be held as part of the conference to provide time for participants to come together and form connections.
Other ANTENA activities slated are training the trainers workshops, and subsequently regional training workshops on internationalization to be organized and implemented by the Philippine partner HEIs. These workshops will be open to partner HEIs in their specific regions.