iPeople, the Yuchengco-Ayala education partnership, expects to enlist more students in the coming school year under its collaboration with Arizona State University for remote learning.

In an interview, iPeople President Fred Ayala said they have already soft-started the collaboration with ASU this school year with a few hundred students.

“We only signed (agreement with ASU) in May and announced it in June. Classes started in August... So this coming year in August, we're hoping to see significant sign-ups. We plan to fully market the program now and expect more enlistments when the new school year starts in August 2023,” Ayala said.

He explained that, “The first classes were in August but, then, we've not really had the chance to market or discuss it much. So that's what we're starting to do now to really share more proactively everything there is to offer.” “We also wanted to get off the ground and run a few courses, make sure that we are doing everything properly... The student response has been very positive,” Ayala added.

iPeople introduced a first of its kind offering that enables Filipino students to immerse themselves in global educational experiences ASU and the Mapua group in a highly cost-effective manner.

Last year, iPeople school Mapua University and its daughter schools Mapua Malayan Colleges Laguna and Mapua Malayan Colleges Mindanao, entered into a collaboration with Arizona State University (ASU), which has been ranked America’s most innovative university, ahead of Stanford and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, over the past 8 years.

The collaboration is focused on Business and Health Sciences programs. Through this collaboration, the Mapua schools also became members of the ASU-Cintana Alliance, a global network of 15 of the most innovative higher education institutions in the Americas, Europe and Asia.

, of Mapua University President and iPeople Chairman Dr. Reynaldo B. Vea said: “Our collaboration with global leader ASU and being part of the ASU-Cintana Alliance enable us to take these to a higher level for our students, by giving them numerous opportunities to learn with a top ranked US university, and other leading education institutions around the world.”

During their time at the Mapua schools, students now have the opportunity to be immersed in international learning experiences in numerous ways. They now have access to ASU’s world-class content in all their ASU-enhanced courses.

Students are also able to participate in Global Signature Courses through state-of-the-art virtual Global Classrooms, which give them the opportunity to learn remotely from professors at member universities of the ASU-Cintana Alliance, and interact with classmates from around the world, without leaving the Philippines.

Students can also participate in classes co-lectured by ASU faculty in the US and will have many opportunities to participate in dozens of student exchange and summer immersion programs at ASU-Cintana Alliance schools.

“This initiative will allow young people access to education that, while Philippine centered, is also global in quality and in reach. We want to help develop a generation of truly global Filipinos, because our country deserves the best the world has to offer,” said Ayala Corporation President and CEO Cezar P. Consing.