UPDATE (06 February 2024): Memo No. OVCAA-MVLO-OFA 24-003 or the UP Diliman International Academic Field Activity (I-AFA) Guidelines is now available on the OFA Diliman Website.
For 2023, a major chunk of the Office of Field Activities (OFA) Diliman’s work focused on matters related to international academic field activities following positive public health developments which once again allowed students to go abroad.
In line with this, OFA Director Arlyn P. Macapinlac, Senior Project Assistant for Project Management Dorothy Forneloza, along with the Office of International Linkages (OIL) Diliman Student Mobility Section Head Aura Fe Carbonilla participated in the Zonal Public Orientation for the Implementation of Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Memorandum Order No. 10 Series of 2023 or the Enhanced Policies, Standards, and Guidelines on Student Internship Abroad Program (SIAP) at Summit Ridge, Tagaytay City last October 20, 2023.
Prior to the public orientation, CHED released the said guidelines last August 29, 2023, through a memorandum that signaled the lifting of the 2020 temporary SIAP suspension.
The event gathered CHED Officials, the SIAP Technical Working Group, and faculty and staff from different universities in Luzon. Dr. Virginia D. Akiate, CHEDRO Calabarzon Director IV, formally opened the activity by welcoming the participants from the Luzon cluster, followed by Prof. Edna Imelda Legazpi, Director IV of Office of Student and Development Services (OSDS) who laid out the objectives of the half-day activity. Meanwhile, Ms. Cynthia Mamawan, OSDS Senior Education Specialist presented the details of CMO 10 S. 2023 to the plenary. An open forum at the end of the orientation also gave way for questions and clarifications from the participants.
As students can once again participate in internship programs abroad and with the resurgence of opportunities for international academic field activities, OFA Diliman is determined to finalize an up-to-date version of Guidelines on International Academic Field Activities (I-AFA) and International Internship/On-the-Job Training (OJT)/Practicum, in collaboration with OIL Diliman. This led to a series of writing workshops on both sets of guidelines expected to be released in 2024.
The office also facilitated benchmarking activities with other universities that conduct SIAP to better develop the University’s guidelines for International Internships. With the connections forged during the inter-university orientation, OFA Diliman invited representatives from Far Eastern University – Institute of Tourism and Hotel Management for an exchange of strategies and best practices in conducting SIAP where Associate Department Chair of FEU ITHM Carolina Roces generously shared their decade’s worth of experience in organizing student internships abroad.
There has been an effort from the University to align its guidelines with the recently-released CHED Memo. To streamline the process while ensuring the protection of UP students while away from their home university, OFA Diliman holds consultations with relevant offices and academic units to ensure that recommendations, suggestions, and feedback from AFA implementers are taken into account in the development of the international academic field activity and international internship guidelines.