Management Development Institute of Singapore
The Management Development Institute of Singapore (MDIS), founded in 1956, is the oldest non-profit vocational university for lifelong learning in Singapore.[1] It offers a variety of degree programs such as business management, engineering, fashion design, nursing, mass communications, psychology and hospitality management.[2][3][4] It also offers preparatory courses for GCE 'O' level and 'A' level examinations via its subsidiary MDIS College,[5] which is registered under the Committee for Private Education Singapore (CPE).[6] HistoryBefore 19951955: A group of personnel managers got together to discuss industrial relations problems. The coming-together sparked off the formation of the Supervisory and Management Training Association of Singapore (SAMTAS). Understanding that supervisors were probably the best people to identify and solve any labour problems, training was catered primarily to these supervisors on aspects from job relations to industrial safety. Certified courses, seminars, lectures, film shows and excursions were organised. The inaugural meeting was held on 29 November 1955 where Mr Loke Wan Tho was named its first President. In April 1956, SAMTAS was formalised.[7] 1963: SAMTAS pioneered the Training-Within-Industries (TWI) courses in Singapore. In line with the Singapore government's plans to promote industrialisation in the country, these were courses on supervisory skills initiated by the then Ministry of Labour. 1984: The plan to upgrade SAMTAS' status to that of a professional institute was initiated in 1982. The change of name from SAMTAS to MDIS, or the Management Development Institute of Singapore, was made official on 8 February 1984. The purpose of this move was to give a more professional image and to upgrade the individual membership by allowing the use of designatory letters. SAMTAS, and then MDIS, is the oldest professional institute in Singapore today. MDIS has collaborated with universities in the UK, the US and Australia to offer certified courses. Besides its certified courses from Certificate to Master's level, MDIS conducts seminars, in-house training and consultancy services and offers membership services and privileges. 1995 to 2007An International Affairs Department was set up in 1998 to handle the affairs of foreign students studying with MDIS. In March 2001, the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in Singapore announced that MDIS is a recognised educational institute in China. To date, MDIS has helped almost 3,000 foreign students attain academic qualifications through its courses. MDIS was accorded charity status on 23 August 1996 under the Charities Registration Act, 1994. On 19 November 1997, MDIS was awarded the ISO 9001 certification. On 7 November 2000, MDIS received the People Developer Standard certification. The MDIS Education Trust Fund received its Institution of a Public Character and Charity status in 2002. In 2003, MDIS was among the first seven education institutes to receive the Singapore Quality Class award for Private Education Organisations(PEOs).[8] Community projects that MDIS is involved in includes:
2008 to presentMDIS set up it first overseas campus in Tashkent, capital of Uzbekistan, built in 2008 at a cost of US$20 million.[10] It was announced on 28 June 2010 that MDIS would be setting up an S$130 million overseas 30-acre (120,000 m2) campus in Iskandar Malaysia which is expected to start work at the end of 2011[11] MDIS Malaysia is expected to be five times as big as the MDIS Campus in Singapore. In 2015, MDIS planned to establish a campus in Chennai, India.[12] In 2019, MDIS plans to open another campus in Turkmenistan.[13] Graduate employmentIn a survey conducted by Committee for Private Education on employment outcomes, graduates of MDIS achieved good employment rate, however it would be lower in comparison with 78.4% for their peers from three autonomous universities - the National University of Singapore (NUS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and Singapore Management University (SMU).[14] While the graduate employment rate of post-national service polytechnic graduates whose full-time employment rate was 64%. Notable alumni
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