University Mobility in Asia and the Pacific
The University Mobility in Asia and the Pacific (UMAP) is an association of government and non-government representatives of the higher education sector that aims to achieve enhanced international understanding through increased mobility of university students and staff. UMAP plays a vital role in enhancing cross-border services and promoting partnerships among higher education institutions in Asia and the Pacific.
The Philippines, through CHED, became a full member of UMAP in 2001. UMAP Philippines is expected to participate in UMAP Board and Committee Meetings and UMAP Exchange Programs as a full member.
The UMAP Council Philippines Inc. acts as the advocacy arm of the CHED for related programs and activities to strengthen the internationalization of Philippine HEIs in the following areas:
- Identifying and overcoming impediments to university mobility
- Moving beyond bilateral to multilateral and consortium agreements
- Developing and maintaining a system for granting and recognizing academic credits.
From 2007-2014, the CHED conducted conferences promoting international academic cooperation and exchange programs in seventeen regions in the Philippines with the UMAP Philippine Council members as resource speakers. As a result, membership of Philippine HEIs in the UMAP Philippine Council increased from eleven in 2007 to eighty-six in 2019.
The Philippines served as UMAP Chair from 2011-2012 during which CHED supported and promoted UMAP and its vision to provide a platform for forging networks of cooperation and collaboration on student mobility programs among and between universities and colleges in the Asia-Pacific region. In 2013, the Commission issued CHED Memorandum Order (CMO) No. 33 Series of 2013 entitled “Policies and Guidelines on University Mobility in Asia and the Pacific (UMAP) Credit Transfer Scheme (UCTS)” to be used by UMAP Philippine HEIs.
Through UMAP, Philippine HEIs have strengthened their internationalization programs by participating in the UMAP Multilateral Exchange (UME) Program, Super Short Term Program (SSTP) and UMAP Discovery Camp (UDC) .In 2013, Lyceum of the Philippines University (LPU) Batangas, University of Perpetual Help System (UPHSD)-DALTA and West Visayas State University (WVSU) sent thirteen students to Thailand and Taiwan to participate in short course under the SSTP. And in 2014, UM and LPU sent eleven students to Malaysia, Thailand and Japan again under the SSTP. UM also successfully placed two students in a six-month fully funded exchange program in Korea and Taiwan from August 2014 to January 2015 under the UME. In 2016, CHED in partnership with Ateneo De Manila University, De La Salle University and LPU Batangas successfully hosted the UMAP Discovery Camp in which Forty-two (42) talented college students from six UMAP member countries (Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand and the Philippines) converged for ten days learning from each other ways and strategies to be relevant in society. From 2017-2018 a total of twenty (20) outbound students and twelve (12) inbound students were sent and received by the UMAP PH participating HEIs, and HEIs from Brunei Darussalam, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Thailand.