Philippines pushes ‘education tourism’ program

MANILA — MalacaNang on Sunday expressed support for the Commission on Higher Education’s (CHED) initiative to position the Philippines as an alternative educational destination where neighboring countries could send their overflow student populations.

In his weekly column, The View from the Palace, Press Secretary and Presidential Spokesman Ignacio R. Bunye said if the “education tourism” strategy catches fire, “we have CHED Chair Lito Puno to thank.”

Puno discussed the blueprint of the commission’s “educational tourism” during the NBN 4 television weekly program, “The Cabinet Speaks,” last Thursday evening.

The CHED program seeks “to position the Philippines as an alternative education destination to China or Russia where most Korean students normally go” and complement the government’s tourist promotion program.

Bunye explained that Manila is an “attractive alternative” destination for Korean students because of three main factors: the short distance between Seoul and Manila, the affordability of Philippine education, and the Filipinos’ fluency in English.

Already, an estimated 100,000 South Korean students are enrolled in various private and state-run colleges and universities in the country.

“Soon, even Chinese and Indian students are expected to arrive,” according to Bunye.

The Philippine government and China’s Ministry of Education have signed recently a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) “allowing Chinese students who could not be accommodated in China’s universities to study in the Philippines.”

“Chinese students find it very attractive to study here, considering that they would be paying only half the price ($1,000 per semester in the Philippines compared to $2,000 per semester in China),” Bunye added.

Aside from Koreans, about 1,600 students from India are expected to enroll in Philippine colleges and universities this September.

“First, it was medical tourism. Now, another emerging trend is educational tourism,” Bunye pointed out.