University to partner with leading Philippines universities on transnational education
Wednesday, 10 May 2017
The teams met in Manila in February 2017.
Two leading universities from the Philippines – the University of Philippines and the University Santo Tomas – have nominated Reading as their chosen partner for the funded development of transnational education (TNE) collaborations.
The partnership follows a visit from ten Philippine universities to the University of Reading in November 2016, which was hosted by the International Partnerships Team within the International Study and Language Institute (ISLI). The team held further meetings in Manila in February this year to help cement the relationships.
The proposed partnerships will see the University of Philippines partner our School of Agriculture, Policy and Development and School of Maths, Physical and Computer Sciences, while the University Santo Tomas will partner our School of Built Environment.
The Philippines universities nominated these schools after their inspiring presentations and engaging follow up discussions during the visit in November. Further detailed talks between our schools, the partnerships team and the Philippines universities are due to take place around the Going Global conference in May 2017.
Vincenzo Raimo, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Global Engagement said, “gaining nominations from University of Philippines and University Santo Tomas in areas where there is potential for real and lasting mutual benefit is an excellent outcome. It demonstrates our commitment to working hard to build trusting relationships with high quality strategic partners as part of the University’s Global Engagement Strategy.”
The proposed postgraduate programmes will align the strengths of the University of Reading with those of the universities in the Philippines and will provide access for Filipino students to UK programmes and improve the quality of local higher education. They will address the Philippines’ national priority areas such as Climate Change, Agriculture, Transportation, Energy, Design Engineering and Digital Innovation. The grants awarded to the Philippines institutions will support the development of the TNE links and will enable further development of joint collaboration.
Steve Thomas, Head of International Partnerships, said of the second meeting in Manila, “the British Council along with the Philippines’ Council for Higher Education provided the perfect mix of information about the programme, opportunities for partner discussions, and campus visits. We were able to spend plenty of quality time with our partners, which is essential for building lasting relationships.”
The UK is recognised as a world-leading provider of transnational education and the University’s vision for global engagement recognises that by the end of this decade, almost a quarter of our students will be studying somewhere off-shore.
A wide variety of programmes and platforms for delivering education across borders have developed to meet the growing demand for higher education across the world. Developing further TNE opportunities at Reading must be a strategic focus for implementing the University’s vision for 2026.