Filipino students urged to check EU college openings at virtual fair

FILE PHOTO: European Union flags flutter outside the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium May 5, 2021. REUTERS/Yves Herman

MANILA, Philippines — The European Union (EU) is urging Filipino students who may want to pursue tertiary or higher education in EU educational institutions to join the virtual fair that would run from October 1 to 2.

In a press conference on Thursday, EU officials and local education representatives formally announced the schedule for the 2021 European Higher Education Fair (EHEF), an annual event that has been going around since 2012 to provide students an option if they intend to study abroad.

According to EU Ambassador Luc Véron, the fair would be a one-stop shop where students can also access information about the schools that would participate.

“EU wants to give Filipino students access to information about pursuing their higher education in European universities, institute, and colleges. We also want to underscore the importance of mobility, innovation, partnerships, and lifelong learnings,” Véron said.

“This fair is therefore a one-stop shop, an information hub to know more about the EU and the center of academic excellence, its higher education institutions, their graduate and post-graduate programs, and the opportunities for financial support to student mobility such as Erasmus and EU Scholarship program,” he added.

The Ambassador also underscored that the education fair is part of the EU’s vision regarding providing fundamental rights, and in a more technical manner, part of the Union’s bilateral cooperation with the Philippine government.

“Education is a fundamental right. It opens opportunities to better understand the world we live in, and at the same time strengthen people to people links. It is also the only path towards human and economy development,” Véron said.

“Education is also a priority of cooperation, under the EU-Philippine bilateral cooperation and partnership agreement.  For these reasons, the delegation of the European Union together with the embassies and education services of the EU member-states initiated in 2007 the higher education fair,” he explained.

For the 2021 edition of the EHEF, one additional EU member-state — Poland — would join, along with other countries which participated before, namely Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, Ireland, Spain, France, Italy, Hungary, the Netherlands, Austria, Finland, and Sweden.

“This year we have the privilege to count the presence of 140 higher educational institutions from EU, supported by 13 Philippine university partners, and two associations,” Véron noted.

To register for the EHEF, interested parties can visit https://ehefphilippines.com/.  The program would go live at 1:30 p.m. on October 1, and may be accessed through the website and EHEF’s Facebook page.

EDV