FSI Expands Academic Links with UP Asian Center

UP Asian Center Dean Noel Christian A. Moratilla and FSI Director General Francisco Noel R. Fernandez III

MANILA 12 March 2025 – The Foreign Service Institute, through its Director General Francisco Noel R. Fernandez III, met with Dean Noel Christian A. Moratilla of the University of the Philippines (UP) Asian Center on 07 March 2025, Friday at the UP Diliman Campus. Fernandez briefed Moratilla on the thematic priorities of FSI namely, AI and Diplomacy Studies, Indo-Pacific Studies, Middle Power Diplomacy Studies, Blue Economy Studies, Migration Studies, West Philippine Sea Studies, and Biodiversity Studies. He also extended an invitation for the UP Asian Center to join the 2nd Conference of Philippine Higher Education Institutions in International Relations and Studies (CHEIIRS) created by FSI as a forum for collaboration between the academic community and practitioners of diplomacy. Moratilla conveyed his appreciation for the invitation extended by FSI and expressed his Center’s interest to collaborate in co-organizing academic fora on issues of common interest, including in the field of migration and regional development.

FSI currently has formal linkages with the UP Center for Integrative and Development Studies (CIDS) and the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP). To date, FSI and CIDS have co-organized 5 roundtable discussions in the areas of maritime issues and the blue economy. The collaboration between FSI and PUP, meanwhile, have allowed the former to arrange learning sessions taught by PUP faculty members for the benefit of DFA personnel. Fernandez expressed the hope for FSI to establish a similar formal linkage with the UP Asian Center.

The Asian Center is the University of the Philippines’ only unit with a regional area of specialization and one of the colleges in the University’s Diliman Campus. Established in 1955 as the Institute of Asian Studies, the Asian Center offers graduate-level multidisciplinary programs on Asian Studies and on Philippine Studies. Its mandate—the study of Asia—is underpinned by law, Republic Act No. 5334, which took effect in June 1968.

FSI is the training and research agency attached to the DFA which was created under Presidential Decree No. 1060. Its remit was expanded by Republic Act No. 7157. The Secretary of Foreign Affairs chairs the FSI Board with the Chairperson of the Civil Service Commission (CSC), Director General of FSI, President of the University of the Philippines (UP), and President of the Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP) as members. END