Bangkok--4 Apr--Vero Public Relations
After a full day of lectures, Thai and other international students at the Management Development Institute of Singapore (MDIS) now have the pleasure of retiring to a new S$ 80 million (around THB 1.9 billion) hostel on the MDIS campus on Stirling Road. The 15-storey hostel, one of the largest to be built by a private education institution in Singapore, can accommodate up to 1,700 students.
The hostel is part of MDIS’ overall development to expand and upgrade its existing campus as it targets to have 20,000 local and foreign students by 2015. The hostel is not only notable in its size but also its design and facilities — and very importantly — its green focus.
MDIS Residences@Stirling, as it is officially called, comes with innovative features to ensure secure and homey comfort for international students. It is the first hostel in Singapore to win the Building and Construction Authority's (BCA) Green Mark Gold Plus Award for its green features.
Besides the brand new hostel, MDIS is also investing another S$40 million (around THB 982 million) to upgrade its facilities by adding three new buildings on its existing campus to provide more office space, lecture rooms, technical studios and car park lots.
The largest one, the 6-storey Block A, will replace the 2-storey administration wing to provide 3,264 square meters of office space and up to 16 new lecture rooms.
Having new physical buildings are not the only enhancements for MDIS as it will also be setting up a new academic-focused postgraduate center in the new integrated campus.
“We will be setting up the very first Postgraduate Centre with our University partners — right here at the new admin block. This centre is aimed at bringing in overseas lecturers and teaching fellows from our reputed university partners to teach our students in Singapore. We believe that this will further raise our standards of educational excellence as well as provide better interaction between our overseas university partners and our students. This will also further enhance the globalisation of the MDIS learning experience which is key to the success of our students and graduates in an increasingly globalised world,” said Dr Theyvendran, MDIS Secretary-General as he toured the MDIS Integrated Campus with the guests.
In addition to the admin block, Block E at the MDIS Stirling Road campus will have supplemental educational facilities such as lecture rooms, technical studios and study balcony. The block will also have multi-storey car parks accommodating 100 vehicles. Construction of the new block has started in July 2011 with completion expected by July 2013.
The new block can accommodate up to 2,000 students in terms of classroom capacity, up to nearly 20 per cent from its current student intake. MDIS is funding its campus upgrading and new hostel development from its own internal cash reserves.
Currently the MDIS Campus at Stirling Road has 58 lecture rooms, five computer laboratories, four life sciences laboratories, two engineering labs, two television and radio studios, a hospitality training centre, a dance studio and lecture theatres. In addition, there is a bookshop, a cafeteria, an open-air amphitheater, a multi-purpose hall and other facilities such as a fully-equipped gymnasium, badminton courts and library.
In recent months, MDIS has won significant recognition for its efforts to provide a holistic education for its current cohort of more than 13,000 students from 72 countries.
On 19 May 2011, MDIS received the Reader’s Digest Trusted Brands 2011 Gold Award based on six key attributes of trustworthiness and credibility, quality, value, understanding of customer needs, innovation and corporate social responsibility.
In 2010, MDIS was awarded the 4-year Edutrust certification by the Council of Private Education (CPE). This certification is awarded to private education institutions (PEIs) that have met the stringent standards set by CPE.
These standards include management commitment and responsibilities, corporate governance and administration, external recruitment, student protection and support services, academic processes and assessment of students, and quality assurance. MDIS is among the 21 PEIs out of about 1200 in Singapore to get the 4-year EduTrust certification.
About Management Development Institute of Singapore
The Management Development Institute of Singapore (MDIS), founded in 1956, is Singapore’s oldest not-for-profit professional institute for lifelong learning. MDIS has two subsidiaries: Management Development Institute of Singapore Pte Ltd (MDIS Pte Ltd) to oversee its Singapore academic operations, and MDIS International Pte Ltd to further its globalisation strategy.
MDIS provides well-accredited courses, seminars and management services and opportunities for individuals to develop professionally through academic programmes in Business and Management, Engineering, Fashion and Design, Information Technology, Life Sciences, Mass Communications, Psychology and Travel, Tourism and Hospitality Management. They are offered in collaboration with highly acclaimed universities in Australia, France, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.
The success of MDIS’ graduates is due to the institute’s strong commitment to high quality standards of education. The achievement of the 4-year EduTrust Certification awarded by the Council for Private Education in 2010 is a milestone for MDIS as it attests to the institute’s exemplary education and business excellence standards. MDIS is also amongst the first batch of Private Education Institutions (PEIs) to receive the Enhanced Registration Framework.
In September 2008, MDIS set up its first overseas campus in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan in Central Asia, to offer world-class tertiary education to students from the Central Asia region.
MDIS inked a landmark deal with EduCity@Iskandar in June 2010 and is the first Singapore private tertiary institution to make its foray into Malaysia. The new 30—acre campus will be funded internally by MDIS and is expected to take in its first batch of students in 2013.
MDIS has representative offices in China, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam. It is also represented by agents throughout Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
ABOUT MDIS RESIDENCES@STIRLING
The hostel can take up to 1,700 students and comprises 100 single bedrooms, 602 two-bed rooms and 80 4-bed rooms with either balconies or bay windows. The rooms come furnished with beds, study desks and built-in wardrobes. There is a pantry on each floor that is equipped with a microwave oven. In addition, there are 14 suites in the residences which cater to the families of international students.