CHED, company under Malaysian counterpart sign letter of cooperation on academic initiatives

Commission on Higher Education. Mark Demayo, ABS-CBN News/FileMANILA — The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) on Tuesday with Education Malaysia Global Services (EMGS), a company under Malaysia’s Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE), for cooperation on academic initiatives. 

The initiative provides a framework for CHED and EMGS to collaborate on the ASEAN Global Exchange for Mobility and Scholarship+ (ASEAN GEMS+), EducationPhilippines (EduPHIL), transnational higher education, and other higher education efforts, according to CHED. 

ASEAN GEMS is a regional online platform for scholarships and university incentives, CHED said.

“Building on the existing scholarship and mobility platform, the ASEAN GEMS+ extends cooperation to research grants, researcher mobility, and innovation partnerships, and collaborative projects aligned with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals,” CHED Chairperson Shirley Agrupis said. 

The ASEAN GEMS initiative has promoted over 4,000 scholarship opportunities with a combined value of nearly USD 200 million as of October 2026, according to EMGS Chairman Datuk Ahmad Shalimin Ahmad Shaffie.

“We hope this platform will encourage more students to explore opportunities across Asia, including between Malaysia and the Philippines. Beyond scholarship, we also see room for leadership programs, students exchange, university partnership, joint economic activities, and research collaboration,” Shaffie said. 

According to Agrupis, they organized an inter-agency partnership for EduPHIL, a portal system for student visa processing.

“We have already organized an inter-agency partnership so that we were able to get a signature — executive order of the EduPHIL, which is equivalent to the EMGS. IRR is ready. And we will finalize — we will have the inaugural inter-agency meeting tomorrow in Malacañang,” Agrupis said.