BiPSU President Dr. Victor C. Canezo, Jr. and Planning Director & QS Focal Person Mr. Joedel Penaranda traveled to the United State of America (USA) to participate in this year’s QS-Wharton Reimagine Conference held at the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) on December 5-10, 2022.

“Reimagine Education is the world’s largest awards program for innovative pedagogies. It culminates in a global forum for educational thought leaders. It is a global conference and competition, open to educational innovators from all around the world,” QS stressed.

The said trip is part of the unlocked opportunities earned by the university after the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) officially awarded QS Stars to Biliran Province State University (BiPSU) during the QS Higher Education Summit: Asia Pacific 2022 hosted by Universitas Indonesia and co-hosted by Prince of Songkla University, held on 8-10 November 2022 in Pondok Pinang, South Jakarta City, Jakarta, Indonesia.

On the sideline, President Canezo and Mr. Penaranda also conducted a collaboration meeting with Dr. Rodolfo Altamirano of UPenn. “We benchmarked on some of the best practices of UPenn, an Ivy League university in the US. This includes their International Student and Scholar Services on Immigration and Integration Office—a critical component toward complying with the World QS University, Times Higher Education, and other similar insights and analytics group. We were able to conduct a partnership meeting with Penn’s International Office director, Dr. Altamirano, and carved connections for future collaborations,” President Canezo disclosed.

“We learned of the Oscars for Education and were able to gain insights from the award-winning practices of HEIs around the globe on technology, HyFlex education, and pandemic pedagogy, among others. This provided us with concrete scenarios as to how universities must navigate the futures of higher education which is in line as well with our efforts on strategic foresight and futures-thinking,” Mr. Penaranda shared.

The conference brings together edtech startups, academic faculty from top institutions, Chief Innovation Officers, university leadership, teachers, and other stakeholders in the future of higher education teaching and learning. The Reimagine Education Awards – the ‘Oscars’ of Education – reward innovative approaches that enhance student learning outcomes and employability,” the QS website reads.

“Specifically, we learned of the QS Sustainability Ranking, which looks at the organization’s contribution toward the UN Sustainable Development Goals more than the actual performance of universities on research and instruction. This is a future opportunity for BiPSU to align its plans and programs to the world’s standards. Overall, the activity has helped us unlock many opportunities for collaboration, and improvement, and for proving that BiPSU can still do more with its 3 stars given this Governing Board’s unwavering support,” Mr. Penaranda added.