PALAYAN CITY, Philippines – An international college – which has campuses in the United States and three other countries and with a student population of at least 15,000 – is setting up a satellite campus here to bring 21st century e-learning as well as international students to this Nueva Ecija capital.
Mayor Adrianne Mae Cuevas told reporters that the city government has forged a partnership with Concordia International College-Philippines (CICP) for the establishment of its first campus in the province in 2014.
“This partnership will help bring computer education to the grassroots and afford the people of Palayan the opportunity to avail themselves of world-class education. It will thus put our city in the international map insofar as computer education is concerned,†Cuevas said.
Cuevas signed a memorandum of agreement with CICP officials led by its president Violeta Jerusalem and David Kang, chief executive officer of its international partner Concordia International University, for the planned campus here which will initially operate at the city government-run Palayan City Industrial Technology (PCIT) school.
Kang, a Canadian-Korean, is involved in research and development projects on organic products such as oil extracts from moringa and oregano. He is planning to put up a pilot research facility in the city, which has vast hectares of land for agricultural production.
Jerusalem said CICP has a global student population of 15,000, 7,000 of whom are in its Canada campus which started operating in 2001. In the country, CICP, which started operating in 2011, has 5,000 students.
Jerusalem said the plan to put up a campus here was conceived when she and Kang were invited by Cuevas and her husband, businessman Vince Cuevas, to visit the city and explore the possibility of expanding the institution’s reach.
After the visit, she said they approved the proposal after noting the city’s potentials. “Palayan has very strong potentials that’s why we considered it in our expansion plans,†she said.
Jerusalem said the Cuevas couple is committed to push the city’s development forward.
“Mayor Cuevas, for one, is a very committed person. But she has noticed that the community is not that involved. She wants it involved in education,†she said.
Jerusalem said the college – which has satellite campuses in Metro Manila, Pampanga and Baguio City – will bring to the city a mix of traditional classroom instruction and distance learning.
The CICP, Jerusalem said, has academic partners abroad and could bring in international students. Aside from the US and Canada, it also operates in Australia and South Korea.
Jerusalem said the CICP would construct world-class facilities, including dormitories.
Cuevas said facilities similar to those set up at the Philippine Rice Research Institute’s central experiment station in the Science City of Muñoz are being eyed in the site.
She said they are eyeing at least 2,000 square meters of land for the campus and the research complex.