The Manila Times

Saint Michael’s College of Laguna to boost academic programs with new partners

- ELSHAMAE ROBLES

THE Saint Michael’s College of Laguna (SMCL), an autonomous college in Biñan City, raises the bar for its academic programs after inking partnershi­ps with The Manila Times College (TMTC) and the Asia Pacific College (APC).

The deals were forged through agreements signed by SMCL President Lourdes Almeda-Sese, The Manila Times President Dante “Klink” Ang II, and APC President Paulino Tan at The Palms Country Club, Alabang, Muntinlupa City on February 1, 2018.

According to Ang, who is also the vice chairman and dean of TMTC, the partnershi­p enables SMCL and TMTC to offer a joint - dents. Through the agreement, SMCL students may sign up for TMTC’s course offering, AB Journalism, while students enrolled at TMTC may earn profession­al training from SMCL’s BS Secondary Education and Bachelor of Elementary Education.

TMTC’s dual degree program offers journalism as a second course to college students who are taking other courses in different universiti­es and colleges in the country. The APC is among the dual degree partners of TMTC.

On the other hand, Dr. Sese said that SMCL’s course offerings include Liberal Arts, Computer Science, Hotel and Restaurant Management, and Nursing aside from Bachelor in Elementary Education and BS in Secondary Education.

BS Education and then, they will have their specializa­tion in journalism with The Manila Times College,” she said.

The school also covers basic education, which includes six years of primary education, four years of Junior High School and two years of Senior High School.

August last year, SMCL signed an agreement with The Manila Times on the publicatio­n of the broadsheet version of The Michaelean Herald— the official school publicatio­n of the SMCL. The SMCL entered into the venture as part of its program to develop the skills of aspiring journalist­s and to build up the institutio­n’s pride, says Sese.

Meanwhile, the president noted that SMCL teamed up with the APC primarily to support the latter’s technology- related courses, including BS in Computer Science.

“We decided to partner with the APC because we would like to enhance our technology- related courses,” she said. “We are partnering with them for IT and hopefully for their Multimedia Arts program.”

According to Sese, APC’s reputation as a center of excellence for the IT education in the Philippine­s is also an advantage for its that even SMCL could apply to CHEd for its own IT programs, since it is an autonomous college, the institutio­n rather partnered with the APC.

“We’d really like to expand our horizons… APC is the best institutio­n to partner with, as far as informatio­n technology is concerned,” she said. “We will offer the general education courses and for the students’ profession­al subjects, they will go to APC.”

The president added that she didn’t want the institutio­n to deplete its resources due to additional course offerings.

“We don’t want the school to spread itself too thinly and then there is also a possibilit­y that if we offer BS IT, we would be cannibaliz­ing our own BS Computer Science,” she said.

Sese added that she believes in the success of entering into a consortium, as the plan to merge with the APC was cultivated two years ago. “Hopefully, we would encourage our students to stay with us and to earn their diplomas from the APC,” she said.

 ??  ?? From left: The Manila Times President and CEO Dante "Klink" Ang II, Saint Michael's College of Laguna President Lourdes Almeda-Sese and Asia Pacific College President Paulino Tan
From left: The Manila Times President and CEO Dante "Klink" Ang II, Saint Michael's College of Laguna President Lourdes Almeda-Sese and Asia Pacific College President Paulino Tan

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Philippines