By Merlina Hernando-Malipot
The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) today led the launch of postgraduate degrees that are currently unavailable in the country to be offered starting September this year.
Developed under the CHED-British Council Joint Development of Niche Programmes Project, the launch highlights the two-year undertaking which brought together nine higher education institutions (HEIs) from the United Kingdom and 10 from the Philippines to develop exemplars of collaborative transnational education programs in the form of joint, dual and double degrees on niche disciplines that are not offered in Philippine HEIs.
CHED officer-in-charge J. Prospero De Vera III, British Council Country director Nicholas Thomas, and Deputy British Ambassador to the Philippines Nigel Boud led the launch at the Makati Shangri-La. In the program, potential students will study and finish a degree accredited in the Philippines and in the United Kingdom.
CHED logo (Manila Bulletin file photo)
“Today’s launch proves to be another milestone for the Philippine education as this program opens opportunities for students as well as faculty members who wish to pursue further studies in a more practical yet equally competitive way,” De Vera said.
De Vera noted that the British Council and CHED embarked on a partnership geared toward establishing lasting linkages between the UK and the Philippines in August 2016. In line with this, the British Council and CHED together with its Philippine and UK higher education institutions have organized a series of marketing activities to showcase and market the degrees.
The commencement event of which is the First UK-Philippine TNE Conference and UK-Philippine Education Fair held on February 16-17. The two-day event convened key players in the higher education and industry sector to share insights, discuss opportunities for internationalization and TNE in the Philippines. It also featured briefing sessions on the postgraduate degrees and short master class sessions around themes.
The sessions aim to provide prospective students with a glimpse of the kind of topics and discussions that the postgraduate degrees will be covering. Booths showcasing the Philippine-UK postgraduate degrees will provide prospective students’ opportunities to further inquire about the program details and enrolment eligibility requirements.
Cutting-edge programs
The Philippine universities will start to offer the new degrees by September 2018.
Earlier, CHED said a total of P5 million will be granted to each institution in the Philippines that will cover two-years’ worth of activities to develop the partnerships via curriculum and faculty development, preliminary research, workshops or seminars, teaching materials and equipment needed for the programs.
The following Philippines and UK partner-universities will soon offer the following programs: 1. Ateneo de Manila University and Queen Mary University of London - MSc Big Data and MSc Innovation through Media Arts Technology; 2. Bicol University and Liverpool University - MSc Food Systems; 3. Central Luzon State University and University of Liverpool - PhD Sustainable Food Systems by research; 4. De La Salle University and Liverpool Hope University - MSc Computer Science, MSc Sport and Exercise Nutrition, MSc Data Science/MSc Data Engineering and MSc Robotics Engineering;
- Miriam College and Goldsmith’s University of London - MA Designing Education; 6. Saint Louis University and Coventry University - MSc Disaster Risk Reduction and Management; 7. Silliman University and Newcastle University - Joint Research and MSc Tropical Biological Oceanography; 8.University of the Philippines and University of Reading - PhD Metereology; 9. University of the Philippines Los Baños - PhD by Research; 10. University of San Carlos and Coventry University - PhD Engineering / with Cardiff Metropolitan University - Design-fashion; 11. University of Santo Tomas and University of Reading - PhD Architecture / with University of Leeds - MSc Public Health.
The initiative in under the K-to-12 Transition Program which is a five-year effort aimed at the strategic development of HEIs and personnel during the transition period from 2016 to 2021. The program includes a range of programs to support faculty and staff through scholarships for master’s and doctoral programs, locally and abroad, nondegree programs, as well as institutional grants for HEIs.