CHED Memorandum Order No. 21 — the Philippines' National AI Framework for Higher Education

On 15 September 2026, the Philippines' Commission on Higher Education (CHED) issued Memorandum Order No. 21, Series of 2026, 'Policies, Standards, and Guidelines for the Framework on Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education,' the country's first national governance framework for AI across teaching, learning, research, assessment and institutional operations. Rather than banning generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, the order requires the roughly 2,366 public and private higher-education institutions it covers — reaching an estimated 188,261 faculty members and 5.8 million students — to develop their own institutional AI policies.
Students and faculty must disclose 'significant assistance received from AI tools,' including the tool and version used, the date, purpose and how the output was reviewed or modified. Critically, the order states that AI-detection software results cannot alone prove academic misconduct: institutions must conduct fair reviews using additional evidence such as drafts, notes or oral explanations before any disciplinary action, and meaningful human review must remain in decisions on admissions, grades, scholarships, discipline, hiring and employment. Institutions are also directed to redesign assessment toward oral exams, demonstrations, portfolios and project-based work, and to keep AI use compliant with the Philippines' Data Privacy Act of 2012.
The order was reported by the state-run Philippine News Agency and by independent Philippine outlets including Manila Bulletin and PTV News. As a governance framework issued days before this record was compiled, it has no independent evaluation of learning outcomes; its evidence rests on its national legal scope and the due-process protections it establishes for students facing AI-related misconduct allegations, an area where several other jurisdictions in this catalogue have faced successful legal challenges (e.g., wrongful-suspension disputes over AI-detection flags) that CHED's rule appears designed to pre-empt.

Read the full analysis: http://ched.gov.ph/2026-ched-memorandum-order?type=PAGE&to=2026-ched-memorandum-order&label=2026+CHED+Memorandum+Orders