Filipino students in US reach 15-year high

By Erika Mae P. Sinaking

INTEREST among Filipinos in pursuing higher education in the US is growing, with the number of students enrolled in American universities reaching its highest in 15 years, according to US Embassy officials.

“We are focused on helping Filipinos pursue studies abroad in the United States,” US Embassy Chargé d’Affaires Y. Robert Ewing said during the EducationUSA University Fair 2025 in Manila on Sunday.

The fair, marking its 10^th anniversary, featured 29 US colleges and universities and highlighted the rising number of Filipino students studying in the US, which reached more than 4,100 in 2024, up from about 3,000 when the event first started.

Mr. Ewing said recent initiatives include Fulbright-Philippine Space Agency scholarships, an agreement with US energy company EOS to fund exchanges in civil-nuclear energy and new memoranda of understanding with Philippine universities and private companies.

EducationUSA, the embassy’s advising arm, provides a free and impartial resource for Filipinos seeking to study abroad.

“These partnerships are about developing the future workforce of the Philippines,” he said, highlighting key sectors such as energy, cybersecurity, maritime law enforcement and semiconductors.

He also cited the accessibility of the US community college system, which lets students complete two-year programs before transferring credits to four-year universities.

Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Chairperson Shirley C. Agrupis said the agency is promoting policies to allow Filipino students abroad to acquire skills that contribute to national development. “That’s the real picture behind this transnational education,” she told ����ý.

“We are expanding the educational system so that we will partner with universities that have a mutual recognition of the credits of the degree program,” Ms. Agrupis said. “What they earn in the United States is recognized here, and what they earn in the Philippines has an equivalency in the United States or anywhere else in the world.”

She said the policy direction of CHED now is to “prioritize the identified priority programs that are very hard to fill in the Philippines.”

Meanwhile, US sports envoy and retired professional basketball player Taj McWilliams-Franklin cited how athletics could complement academic pursuits by young Filipinos.

“The development of women’s basketball in the Philippines is at a higher level now compared with 2016,” she told ����ý on the sidelines of the event. “Here in the Philippines… that means you’re doing something right and the college system is developing players well.”