THE University of the Philippines Los Baños secured a 750,000 euro grant from Erasmus+ for the Postgraduate Micro-Credentials for Food Security and Climate Change project.

UPLB is among the higher education institutions in the Southeast Asian University Consortium for Graduate Education in Agriculture and Natural Resources.

Led by Kasetsart University, the initiative seeks to provide learner-centered short-term courses through micro-credentials and address critical issues related to food security and climate change.

“Under the PMC FSCC project, these institutions aim to develop and pilot-test postgraduate micro-credentials for food security and climate change through modular learning, establish a roadmap for the implementation of micro-credentials, including their portability, and design a quality plan to ensure the academic integrity of micro-credentials,” UPLB said.

“To achieve these objectives, the project is structured into five work packages: project management and coordination, led by KU; micro-credentials development and training, led by UPLB; micro-credentials university policy and quality plan, led by UGM; monitoring and evaluation of micro-credentials led by UPM; and communication and dissemination, led by IPB University,” it added.

The project is a collaborative effort among several institutions across different countries namely UPLB, Central Luzon State University, and Visayas State University in the Philippines; Kasetsart University and Maejo University in Thailand; Institut Pertanian Bogor Universitas Gadjah Mada and Universitas Brawijaya in Indonesia; Universiti Putra Malaysia and Universiti Malaysia Sabah in Malaysia; University of Göttingen in Germany; University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Austria; and the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture–Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization.

It will run from December 2023 to December 2026.

Several work packages include project management, micro-credential development, policy creation, monitoring, and evaluation, led by different consortium members.

Meanwhile, work Package 2 involves the training of module developers and the design, development, and pilot testing of module contents for online delivery.

Erasmus+ is a program of the European Union dedicated to supporting education, training, youth, and sport. The Erasmus grant falls under the Capacity Building in Higher Education initiative, fostering collaboration and innovation.