Filipinos more enthusiastic in higher studies in Europe — EU

Ambassador Jan Top Christensen (Denmark). Ms. Antonella Giorgio (European Commission), Mr Nick Thomas (British Council), Ambassador Luis Calvo (Spain), Mr Fabio Schina (Italy), Mr Gottfried Thorsten (Germany), Mr Xavier Leblanc (Belgium), Dr. Minella Alarcon (CHED), Ambassador Marion Derckx (Netherlands), Mr Mattias Lentz, CDA (European Union), Mr Jakub Cerny (Czech Republic), Mr Jules Leconte (France), Ms Kate Alyzon Ramil (Country Representative, EMA) join in the ribbon-cutting ceremony to open the European Higher Education Fair 2015. The Fair has attracted 2,423 participants from the academia.

More Filipinos are becoming more enthusiastic in pursuing higher studies in Europe, the European Union (EU) said on Monday.

At the conclusion of the European Education Fair 2015, Mattias Lentz, charge d’affaires of the EU delegation to the Philippines, said the union’s continuous information campaign and increasing number of bilateral academic partnerships and exchanges led to the increasing interest of Filipinos to pursue higher education in the region.

EU said the latest fair attracted 2,423 students, researchers and academicians, higher than last year’s figure of 1,746.

Commissioner Minella Alarcon of the Commission on Higher Education said the agency joins the EU in ensuring that “quality, mobility, and innovation” are maintained when Filipinos decide to pursue graduate studies in EU member states.

She noted that the recent EU fair offered a wide array of options for students who want to take up Masters and PhD programs.

Twenty-seven European higher education institutions attended the fair, which opened last Nov. 7 in Makati City. Ambassadors Jan Top Christensen of Denmark, Luis Calvo of Spain, Marion Derckx of Netherlands also inaugurated the event.

Participating European universities included the following institutions:

• • University of Antwerp in Belgium
• • Masaryk University and Mendel Uniersity in Czech Republic
• • Zealand Institute of Business and Technology in Denmark
• • Cordon Bleu, KEDGE Business School, Montepellier Business School, and Network “n+1” in France
• • WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management in Germany;
• • Central European University in Hungary
• • University College Cork in Ireland
• • Accademia di Belle Arti L.A.B.A., Istituto Marangoni, and Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Italy
• • IHS – Erasmus University, International Institute of Social Studies, and TIAS School for Business and Society in the Netherlands
• • IE Business School, SENAI, UCAM Universidad Catolica, and San Antonioi de Murcia in Spain; KTH Royal Insitute of Technology in Sweden
• • Astrum Education, BPP University; HUlt International Business School, Queen Mary University of London, University of Sunderland, and University of West London in the United Kingdom.