DAY 1: September 16, 2025
Day 1 of the event started with a festive march in ASEAN attire led by MINSU Pres Dr. Enya Marie D. Apostol, followed by SUC’s, LUC’s, & other HEI’s officials and representatives. At the Amphitheater, the venue where the three-day events will be held, the program started with the preliminaries that include the institutional videos, prayer, the Philippine National Anthem, and the Welcome Remarks by Dr. Enya Marie D. Apostol. This was followed by the Keynote address by Engr. Edgar C. Cepe of CHED.
A video montage on ASEAN 2045: Our Shared Future introduced the many facets of collaboration, research activities and integration that can fully motivate the viewers. This gave us sceneries of brighter future not only to the educators, but to the whole community as well.
After the luncheon and networking sessions, there were already four sessions that followed. Session 1 talks about Transnational Higher Education and Internationalization Opportunities In the afternoon- its history (RA 11448: Transnational Higher Education Law) and different policies surrounding this mandate.
Session 2 was about the Orientation on CMO No. 3, S. 2025 – SUC travel abroad, wherein it outlined the processes if SUCs will travel abroad – what to prepare, what steps to take, and what to expect. This presentation also showed the frequency of different State Universities and Colleges in their international travel, their itineraries and future collaborations.
Sessions 3 & 4 were both facilitated by Dr. Gaudencio Jun C. Petalcorin, Jr, of Romblon State University. His topics delved on 1st, “Action Planning for Enhancing Internationalization and Cross-Border Partnerships, and 2nd, “Crafting of Strategic Internationalization Plan (SIP).
DAY 2, September 17, 2025
The second day started with the invocation and recapitulation of Day 1, followed immediately by Session 5 entitled “From Policy to Impact: Frameworks and Best Practices of MIMAROPA HEIs in Advancing the UN Sustainable Development Goals” headed by the Romblon State University Pres. Dr. Merian P. Catajay-Mani and her other officials. Their strategy to this activity is a panel-like session, wherein a “host” has set of questions, and all the “guests” shared their answers and discussions. It was a very interesting activity unlike the formal style of public speaking, but their spontaneous exchanges were very informative. After this panel session, the audience was welcomed with their questions.
In the afternoon, RSU Pres. Dr. Mani divided the participants into 7 groups, and each group was given 3 sets of activities. This enhanced collaboration sparked intellectual exchanges between members of each group and between all groups. At the latter part of this activity, each group was assigned two to three SGDs, then asked the group to share some of their best practices aligned with the assigned SDGs. At the end of the session, all outputs from each group were pooled together into one presentation. This presentation was then distributed among all participants, which will serve as guide for future preparations for the activities for the WURI and other global research and extension activities.
The 3-day conference ended with all attendees participating in the “Collective Commitment Ceremony” as each one take turns in signing in the enlarged commitment paper. It was a very worthwhile activity that challenged all the participants to take further action in writing research with global standards and to partake with the sharing of best practices that are worth emulating.