Unilab Foundation explores academic partnership with Philippine Women’s University

MANILA, Philippines — Education, at its best, is more than just a pathway to personal success; it is the blueprint for a healthier, future-ready nation.

With a functional and efficient education system in place, the Philippines would have the power to produce a health-care workforce that is not only skilled enough to meet the country’s evolving health needs, but also deeply committed to the mission of serving the Filipino people.

Ultimately, the goals of Universal Health Care (UHC) would be within reach if a collaborative approach to investing in education is deemed a worthwhile and undeniable priority.

Acknowledging the critical connection between education and the health industry, Unilab Foundation (ULF) leads the conversations on this intersection by exploring an academic partnership with the Philippine Women’s University (PWU). ULF and PWU discussed avenues for cross-border collaboration on programs and local research studies aimed at integrating academe with industry.

“Our model focuses on partnering with existing colleges and universities to ensure that industry is not only linked but integrated with the academe,” said Unilab Foundation executive director Jose Maria Ochave.

“I was pleasantly surprised by the number of PWU’s health care-related courses, which is perfect for developing our Human Resources for Health.”

Among PWU’s health sciences programs are Medical Technology, Nursing, Pharmacy, and Nutrition and Dietetics.

In addition, the university offers a diverse range of programs in Arts and Sciences, Business, Music, and Fine Arts and Design.

Ochave adds that as the country advances toward UHC, there is potential for PWU, in collaboration with the Unilab Foundation, to play a significant role in capacitating global health personnel and officials.

The Philippine health-care sector faces significant and longstanding gaps in its Human Resources for Health. Recently, Health Secretary Ted Herbosa highlighted a shortage of 190,000 nurses in the country. This issue is compounded by high attrition rates and low licensure exam passing rates among students, indicating problems with education and production. Furthermore, many Filipino health care workers opt to