Mapúa MCL renews commitment to ASEAN Values with Passage to ASEAN (P2A) Membership

Mapúa Malayan Colleges Laguna (Mapúa MCL) is represented in the 14^th Passage to ASEAN (P2A) Partner’s Meeting and 9^th General Meeting held on November 19 to 23, 2025 at Universitas Islam Indonesia, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Vice President for External Linkages, Internationalization and Transnational Education (ELITE) James Ronald O. Mesina participated as the Mapúa MCL delegate along with more than 80 university leaders from Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines. The gathering is also highlighted by an international conference with the theme, ASEAN Education in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Era. Alongside, the meetings also served as venues for discussing cross-border mobility, research and higher education pedagogy.

Prof. Mesina took part in the conference as a panelist in the plenary session titled “Advancing AI Research in ASEAN Universities,” discussing how Mapúa MCL is carefully setting up its AI framework that will come across teaching and learning, research, and day-to-day operations of the institution. The panelists also agree on the need to strengthen AI-related policies on teaching to maximize its full potential to empower learners and learning facilitators.

An important part of the P2A General Meeting is the launch of the ASEAN AI Council which Mapúa MCL is supporting as a pioneer member. Led by former Philippine Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Commissioner Dr. Ethel Agnes Pascua-Valenzuela as its Chair, the AI Council is established to:

1. Facilitate information exchange on AI use in education, and regulatory frameworks;
2. Support research collaboration opportunities, and exchange of information, and other related publications, subject to relevant national laws, rules, and regulations of the Participants, as well as the conventions on intellectual property to which they are members; and
3. Facilitate cooperation in the offering of AI lifelong learning programs including microcredentials, research and innovation on AI in education through encouraging reciprocal exchanges between higher education institutions, research and development institutes, and other entities operating in the field of science and technology.

With this new development, Mapúa MCL will take the lead on organizing activities and initiatives on AI such as conferences, hackatons, and research engagement activities with other P2A member institutions.

Passage To ASEAN Association (P2A) was founded in 2012 with the aim of stepping up the roles of educators in addressing the challenge of diversity in the ASEAN Community. Guided by this community’s vision of peace and harmony, and driven by the core beliefs that education shapes nations, the concept of Passage to ASEAN (P2A) was born with the objective of uniting higher education institutions in ASEAN countries to advance the promotion of cultural appreciation and workforce education amongst its youth.

Since 2012, the organization grew from 5 to 149 members, with its current size uniting more than one million students across 10 ASEAN member states. During the 2015 4th P2A Member Meeting held in Da Nang, Vietnam, the P2A members also resolved to register this informal network to become a formal institution. 

On 6th January 2020, under the support of the P2A Secretariat currently operated by Duy Tan University, Vietnam, the application of P2A to be an entity associated with ASEAN has been approved. P2A is listed in Annex 2 of the ASEAN Charter under the category of “Think Tanks and Academic Institutions” and has been approved by the ASEAN Secretariat and 10 ASEAN Member States.