Commission on Higher Education chairperson Prospero de Vera III urged the country's higher education institutions to aggressively went into internationalization for them to be at par with international standards and to be globally competitive.

"The CHEd can help our colleges and universities to link them with foreign universities and to have international partnerships with them," De Vera told school officials from various universities during the awarding of this year's Champions of Nation-building and Sustainability Awards at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City on Friday.

"Whether we like it or not, the world has changed and universities have to look beyond the horizons and their political boundaries. And whether we compete or not, we will be compared. And i said we have to fight it out," De Vera said.

The CHEd chief also said that in the last State of the Nation Address of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Philippine higher education institutions were recognized for their efforts in the internationalization for the first time.