SEARCA welcomed 29 delegates from HEIs in the Philippines at the Culminating Forum to share their learning experiences from the LevelUPHEI AFAR project activities.
Delegates from universities across the Philippines, who completed short-term training programs with the Southeast Asian Regional Center Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA), shared the outcomes of their learning experiences in a Culminating Forum on 13–14 December 2023 at the SEARCA headquarters, Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines.
The 29 training alumni were part of the project titled, Leveling Up Philippine Higher Education Institutions in Agriculture, Fisheries, and Natural Resources (LevelUPHEI AFAR), funded by the Philippine Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and implemented by SEARCA.
The project provided training grants to faculty and staff of the State Universities and Colleges-Association of Colleges of Agriculture in the Philippines, Inc. (SUC-ACAP) member universities. From 2021 to 2023, SEARCA offered online, hybrid, and face-to-face training programs on leadership development, scientific writing, strategic communication, research methodologies, developing fundable proposals, and data analytics. The project also included cross-visits to higher education institutions (HEIs) in Thailand, Singapore, and Indonesia.
With the theme, "Beyond Borders: Embracing Global Perspectives in Higher Education," the forum was the final activity of the project's capacity-building programs. Selected training alumni reported their key insights from the training programs or cross-visits, the immediate outcomes, their overall experience in the learning events they participated in, and updates or progress of their re-entry action plans (REAPs).
Delegates shared their insights, REAP progress, and feedback on the learning events conducted by SEARCA.
Among the outcomes the alumni have shared were their externally funded projects secured and implemented, research presented or published, programs and policies institutionalized, awards or incentives received, networks established, and collaboration forged with other local and international institutions involved in the project. The delegates also expressed their gratitude and praise to SEARCA for the well-organized learning events, the caliber of resource speakers, and the successful accomplishment of learning objectives.
"On behalf of the SEARCA family, we thank CHED and SUC-ACAP for paving the way for us to raise the standards of Philippine HEIs by leveling up the capacities and networks of our workforce," said Assoc. Prof. Joselito Florendo, SEARCA deputy director for administration. "We remain grateful for your commitment to this important project and SEARCA has endeavored to give the best to our faculty and staff members from the different SUCs," he added.
Meanwhile, keynote speakers of the forum imparted trends, programs, and directions for internationalization among Philippine HEIs. They were: Atty. Lily Freida Milla, OIC, Office of the Deputy Executive Director, and director-in-charge of the International Affairs Service of CHED; Professor Paul Teng, SEARCA senior fellow and managing director and dean, National Institute of Education (NIE), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore; and Dr. Jose Camacho, Jr., chancellor, University of the Philippines Los Baños and country representative of the Philippines to the SEARCA Governing Board.
Keynote speakers graced the event to talk about relevant topics on HEIs in the Philippines and beyond.
SEARCA's Training for Development Unit under the Education and Collective Learning Department (T4DU-ECLD) organized the forum and the activities under the project's short-term capacity-building component.
In November 2023, SEARCA's Graduate Scholarship and Institutional Development Unit (GSID)-ECLD conducted the first Culminating Forum for the mobility grants component of the project. The grantees also shared success stories and plans for their respective institutions. In total, the project has provided 611 grants to faculty and staff from SUC-ACAP universities.
"Indeed, the implementation of this program not only enabled our delegates, our faculty, and staff of the SUC-ACAP member institutions but also built networks with common areas of concerns which they can later on harness for their respective responsibilities," said Dr. Edgardo Tulin, immediate past president of SUC-ACAP and Visayas State University.
