IAMU, together with the Maritime Industry Administration (MARINA) and the Philippines Association of Maritime Institutions (PAMI), organized a three-day Maritime Higher Institutions Administrators’ Workshop. The Workshop took place in Manila from 19th until 21st February 2020, at AMOSUP premises. More than 130 participants, mostly administrators and senior management representatives, participated, representing 54 different Maritime Higher Education Institutions (MHEI). The main goal of the workshop was to give the MHEI administrators and MARINA staff attending the workshop a new view of how to develop, improve and review their programs.

The first day of the Workshop was mostly dedicated to current developments within the maritime higher education arena in the Philippines. Representatives from MARINA and PAMI elaborated recent developments as well as expected future advancements, both those foreseen in short-term perspective as well as those expected to take place within long-term time-frame. On behalf of IAMU the Executive Director, Professor Takeshi Nakazawa welcomed participants as well as representatives of MARINA and PAMI. He particularly emphasized the formal basis of the cooperation between MARINA and IAMU, restraints, as well as mutual interests and goals. 

 The second and third day were dedicated to professional subjects. The topics covered included Curriculum Development, Course Delivery, Assessment, and Quality review. A dedicated session was devoted to training course developed for school administrators, focusing on different aspects of the effective management of MHEIs. The team organizing and conducting the workshop on behalf of IAMU consisted of Jan Askholm (SIMAC, Denmark), Johan Elliason (Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden), and Yusuke Mori (IAMU Secretariat), and led by Damir Zec (University of Rijeka, Croatia).

The Workshop, by most participants evaluated as highly anticipated, balanced and well-organized, was concluded by the Deputy Executive Director of the MARINA STCW office, Atty. Vera Joy Ban-eg. In her concluding remarks she emphasized a need to constantly improve the Philippine MET system, and thanks IAMU for its support to foster academic performance of the Philippine MET system.