The 2027-2030 roadmap lets foreign universities set up branches with Filipino partners so students can get international degrees without leaving the country
MAKATI CITY (November 5, 2026) – Filipino college students may soon be able to earn degrees from foreign universities without flying abroad. The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) has launched a national strategy for transnational higher education (TNHE), a roadmap for 2027 to 2030 that includes letting foreign universities build campuses in the Philippines.
CHED Chairperson Shirley Agrupis unveiled the strategy at an event in Makati on Wednesday, November 4. She said it gathers the government’s international education efforts under one framework, with the goal of making the Philippines a trusted regional partner in higher education, talent development and research.
“We cannot confine our students in our local teaching and learning ecosystem because the landscape of higher education changes so fast,” Agrupis said.
Foreign campuses, Filipino partners
A key part of the plan is allowing foreign higher education institutions to open branches here. Under the strategy and Republic Act No. 11448, the Transnational Higher Education Act, a foreign school may set up a local campus by partnering with a Philippine university or company. The local partner must be at least 60 percent Filipino-owned and registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission or the Department of Trade and Industry.
“With foreign universities that have international standards, we can send our Filipino learners to the world-standard education curriculum at our own cost on our own shores,” Agrupis said, calling the rules “a win-win” for Philippine higher education.
She explained that bringing programs home is far cheaper than sending students overseas on full scholarships, which she said could strain the budget for those programs.
Four pillars
The strategy rests on four pillars. The first focuses on developing and keeping Filipino talent by offering international master’s, doctoral and joint degree programs locally. It also aims to ease student and faculty mobility and strengthen research collaboration with schools abroad.
CHED recently signed a partnership with the United Kingdom and plans to explore similar tie-ups with Japan, the United States, Australia and Canada.
More scholarship funds sought
Agrupis also said the commission may push harder for scholarship funding while the 2027 national budget is still being deliberated in the Senate. “We can lobby more in order to really massify the number of grantees in the different scholarship program initiative that we are advocating,” she said.
Rep. Jude Acidre of the House Committee on Higher and Technical Education also took part in the launch.