The Philippine Business for Education, together with the Asian Development Bank and the Coordinating Council for Private Educational Associations, organized a two-day conference on the Role of Private Higher Education Institutions at the ADB Auditorium last April 7-8, 2011.

159 Participants coming from private higher education institutions, government offices and other partner organizations registered for the event. Major topics discussed in the plenary were: The State of Philippine Higher Education; International Trends in Higher Education; Regulatory Framework for Higher Education; Creating World-class Institutions and Financing Private Higher Education. The conference also sought to tackle issues and concerns confronting Quality in the areas of Faculty, Programs and Operations and initially come up with recommendations to address such.

The main presenters and speakers during the conference were Dr. Daniel Levy (State University of New York), Ms. Carolyn Campbell (UK Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education), Dr. Edilberto de Jesus (AIM), Dr. Prachayani Praphamontripong (ADB) and Mr. Norman LaRoque (ADB). Click here to view the conference presentations and summary of the days’ proceedings.

Conference participants were able to discuss and highlight challenges facing the private higher education sector, which, among others were: (1) government regulation on private higher education institutions and operationalizing the private-public partnership policy pronouncement of the government and the role that PHEs play in the country’s development; (2) global competitiveness and ensuring quality in terms of faculty, programs, and operations; and (3) financing/resource accessing to ensure competitiveness, viability and sustainability of PHEs. The topics were discussed within the broader context of global and national trends in higher education, and in light of the challenges and issues which private higher education institutions have to contend with at the local level.