CAMILING, Tarlac (PIA) — Tarlac Agricultural University (TAU) bagged national awards during the 2022 ASEAN Philippine Higher Education Internationalization Champions Of Nation-building and Sustainability (ASEAN ICONS) Internationalization Awards.
Under the Global Citizenship Category, TAU was conferred as the national winner for its Inter-institutional ASEAN Festival (IAF), a product of its partnership with 19 Southeast Asian Higher Education Institutions.
IAF is an ASEAN-wide cultural, literary, and multimedia competitions and webinar series on contemporary challenges in the region conducted from August to October 2021.
Meanwhile, TAU Global Discourse likewise made it to the finals of the same category along with an entry from Mariano Marcos State University.
TAU Global Discourse caters interdisciplinary dialogue, and revolves around forums that feature relevant learnings, purpose and vision; collective efforts in adapting to the effects of COVID-19 pandemic; and an encultured practice to achieve and promote the Sustainable Development Goals.
On another note, TAU was also hailed as a national winner under the Outstanding Contribution to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion category for its twin ventures dubbed as International SDGs Bootcamp (ISB) and Global Goals Cross-sectoral SDG Dialogues (GGSD).
ISB is an innovation-based mentorship and competition among SDG advocates and champions while, GGSD is an undertaking launched in collaboration with the Cebu-based volunteer organization—SEED4Com.
During the ASEAN ICONS Internationalization Awards, Commission on Higher Education (CHED) commended the strategic initiatives of TAU resulting in its inclusion to various international rankings.
These include Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings, Quacquarelli Symonds Stars, and World Universities with Real Impact (WURI).
In a statement, TAU President Max Guillermo expressed his gratitude to CHED and committed to further advancing the university towards excellence.
“We also thank our constituents for supporting our projects. This is just the beginning of our journey towards achieving our vision of becoming one of the top universities in Asia. Let us altogether continuously push TAU to greater heights,” he said.
For her part, TAU External Linkages and International Affairs Director Christine Ferrer underscored the role and importance of integrating the UN 2030 Agenda and ASEAN Blueprint to the university roadmap.
“As we inch closer to achieving our institutional goals, we also need to contribute to the development of our local communities and the entire nation. There are no better ways to do this than to promote greater interconnectedness via ASEAN integration and advocate for high-level discussions on and grassroot adaptation of sustainable policies and systems especially on education, agriculture, food, and technology,” she said.
Ferrer also dedicated the national awards to TAU stakeholders and academic partners who contributed to the university’s success.
“The cooperation among different offices at the university and the genuine passion for innovation of TAU leadership led us to this milestone,” she added.
In 2021 and 2022, TAU ranked 601-800 globally in THE Impact Rankings. TAU was also the first state university and college to ever make it to the prestigious assessment.
In WURI, TAU was listed in the 101-200 tier in the last two cycles, and performed best in student mobility and openness (number 1 in the Philippines) and Fourth Industrial Revolution.
