The Philippines, through the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), strengthened its ties with Canada after a successful internationalization mission.
CHED, led by its Chairman Popoy De Vera, conducted a high-level higher education partnership mission to Canada to expand opportunities to engage in academic and research partnerships focused on health sciences, renewable energy, agriculture, engineering and technology, data science, and disaster risk management, among others.
“CHED’s mission to Canada is a testament to the strong collaboration between Canada and the Philippines on higher education internationalization,” De Vera said in a statement.
During the internationalization mission of Philippine higher education institutions to Canada, De Vera was accompanied by CHED Region I OIC-Director Danilo B. Bose, Trade Commissioner for Education of the Embassy of Canada in the Philippines Angel Cachuela, and officials from eight Philippine higher education institutions (HEIs) namely: Mariano Marcos State University, Iloilo Science and Technology University, West Visayas State University, Southern Leyte State University, World Citi Colleges, and WCC Aeronautical and Technological College, Tarlac Agricultural University, Tarlac State University, and Universidad de Dagupan.
CHED said that the mission provided an opportunity for CHED and delegates to visit and meet with nine post-secondary institutions in Ottawa and Toronto including Carleton University, University of Ottawa, Algonquin College, Ryerson University, York University, University of Toronto, Niagara College, Seneca College, and Mohawk College.
“In recent years, the significant growth of academic and research partnerships between Canadian and Philippine higher education institutions has fostered cross-border collaboration between countries, expanding access to international education opportunities to Canadian and Philippine students and faculty,” De Vera said.
As part of the mission, CHED and the Embassy of Canada in the Philippines also organized the Philippines-Canada Education Networking session, an event that hosted about 20 Canadian education stakeholders in March at the Philippine Embassy in Ottawa.
During the event, De Vera signed Joint Statements on Higher Education Cooperation with Universities Canada and Colleges and Institutes Canada to expand education collaboration in areas such as student mobility, Indigenous Peoples Education, research aligned with the UN SDGs, faculty and staff development, Microcredentials, applied research, and inclusion of in-demand skills in the curriculum.
Letters of Intent were also signed by Universities Canada and Colleges and Institutes Canada with the eight (8) Philippine HEIs.
The event also announced and celebrated 11 MOUs forged between Canadian and Philippine institutions throughout the pandemic in various discipline areas.
Aside from these milestones, CHED also signed a Joint Statement on Higher Education Cooperation with Ryerson University and a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Academic Collaboration with York University to initiate collaboration at the post-secondary and post-graduate levels.
Shortly after his return to the Philippines early this month, De Vera virtually joined the Canadian Ambassador to the Philippines His Excellency Peter MacArthur to witness the signing of the MOU between WCC Aeronautical and Technological College with British Columbia Institute of Technology on aircraft maintenance engineering and avionics.
“The success of CHED’s mission to Canada is rooted in an appreciation of Canada’s strengths in education delivery and research across disciplines and a shared vision to foster internationalization between Canadian and Philippine higher education institutions,” said Canadian Ambassador Peter MacArthur.
“So we look forward to further enabling more trans-Pacific brain circulation between students and faculty,” he added.