The lower house of the Philippine Congress has approved on its second reading House Bill 4553, or the consolidated Distance Learning Act, that will cover the provision of distance education by Philippine HEIs. It includes measures for the extension of tax benefits to organizations that will support distance learning in partnership with local HEIs. Media and telecommunications organizations were also encouraged to assist HEIs in promoting open learning and distance education.

What does this mean for UK HEIs?

The Act will go through a third reading, and subsequent approval, at the lower house before it is endorsed to the upper house (the Philippine Senate). Once approved by the Senate, the President will sign it into law with the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) drafting the implementing rules and regulations (IRR). Our contact at CHED is confident that the bill will be enacted this year. 

Local HEIs will be open for partnerships particularly in the development of distance education programmes and CHED will most likely need a consultant to draft the IRR. At the moment, the University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU) is the biggest provider of distance education programmes in the Philippines with only twelve offerings.
 
Next week from 18-20 June , the UPOU will have the 2nd International Conference on Open and Distance e-Learning in Manila (http://icodel.upou.edu.ph/). The British Council will be participating as an observer at this time and will invite UK representatives to the conference next year.