MDIS: aspiring for `global university' status
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The Institute hopes to generate "the critical mass" needed to graduate to the status
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Photo: By Special Arrangement
AIMING HIGH: The Unicampus of the MDIS in Singapore.
The Management Development Institute of Singapore (MDIS), a prominent private education-provider, nestles between an array of publicly funded universities and the spectrum of foreign educational institutions in the City-State. The Institute, which is now celebrating its 50th anniversary, hopes to generate "the critical mass" needed to graduate to the status of "a global university."
MDIS has recently moved into a new premises, "customised" to meet the educational needs of the students of the 21st century. The campus is "self-sufficient," complete with a multi-purpose open-air arena. Dominated by a dome that depicts the continents, the complex is known as the "MDIS UniCampus." As the name suggests, the aim is to become a university in its own right.
MDIS secretary-general R. Theyvendran was, however, candid about the plans and prospects. Without taking eyes off the "vision to become a global university," the Institute was now considering how best to refashion the roadmap, he said. Originally, a 10-year period, from the time the new campus became functional, was the timeline to become a university, as different from an institution with access to academic programmes recognised by a number of universities round the world. It could now be possible to hasten the process to just five years. At the same time, the MDIS was having "second thoughts now" about becoming a university under its own brand. The crystallising idea, already on the table, was for the Institute to go in for "co-branding" in collaboration with "one of [its] partner-universities."
As Singapore's "oldest not-for-profit professional institute" in the private sector, the MDIS is now said to have on its rolls students from 45 countries. "Borderless education" being the motto of the Institute, , its course offerings are said to cover not only the salient aspects of management studies but also life sciences and the information sector.
Aspiring applicants can access scholarship@mdis.edu.sg for details.
P.S. SURYANARAYANA
Education in Singapore
