Enhancing educational research through collaboration: insights from Philippine centers of excellence

Abstract

With the increasing popularity of internationalization in higher education, research collaboration is essential for universities to compete for world university rankings. This popularity made the Philippines no exemption in conforming to the trend. However, the Philippine education system is facing an education crisis, noting the problem of research productivity in graduate education as highlighted by the Philippine government report, known as the EDCOM II report. To fill this gap, this study examines the Philippine research collaboration in the Philippine setting, particularly the center of excellence (COE) in teacher education institutions. The study utilized a bibliometric approach to analyze the research collaboration following two phases: global and local analysis. It analyzed data between 2014 and 2023 in 21 COE teacher education institutions recorded in SciVal. The findings reveal that the Philippines ranked sixth in international educational research collaboration, lagging behind Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, and Thailand. Europe has the highest number of countries collaborating with the Philippines, while Asia Pacific has the highest number of co-authored publications. Regarding the collaboration sector, academic-only collaboration is the most popular. Moreover, De La Salle University has the highest national collaboration, while the University of the Philippines has the highest international collaboration in educational research collaboration. This study provides a comparative analysis of research collaboration among COE in teacher education, offering insights for policy and internationalization strategies. Moreover, this study contributes to understanding the Philippines’ research collaboration status, offering policy and practice recommendations for improvement.