DUBAI: A degree program initiated by a Filipino educator has over the years seen Arab nationals marching during graduation rites – from members of the Bahrain royal family and a Saudi prince who acquired their doctorates to Emiratis with their MBAs.
This at hand, Dr. Ed Malagapo, CEO & Dean, at EPM & Associates/PCU Graduate School, said plans are afoot to offer more master’s and PhD degrees as approved by the Philippine government’s Commission on Higher Education (CHED) under its Autonomous Program and Transnational Program.
“We will be enhancing our teaching methodology and Blended Learning System approaches and hire more qualified faculty members,” Dr. Malagapo, The Filipino Times 2017 Rizal Awardee, said.
Just recently, the learning institution graduated 43 students, including the two Emiratis, something that Malagapo said he is “so glad” about as they have “completed their degrees for their personal development and global competitiveness.”
The Bahraini Royal family members, which included a senator, graduated in 2010 with PhDs; in 2015, a Saudi prince finished with a doctorate as well.
‘Blessed’
“We are blessed because they had experienced how we deal with the program each session and was happy about our approaches in solving problems and presenting resolutions to case studies assigned to them,” said Dr. Malagapo.
He said the Arab students “shared about the way they managed their business in comparison to the way we are also managing our business.”
“According to them our approaches are systematic based on what we learned in the class and the sharing by the students plus the actual experiences learned in the industry,” he said.
Dr. Malagapo said the students learned the Filipino way in terms of culture, social, religious, economic, camaraderie, and the bayanihan way of group studying weekly and periodically throughout the program.
“They were impressed on our classroom management and teaching methodology as well as our visiting professors from Manila during our immersions in Singapore, Manila, Dubai, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi and Oman,” he said.
“All of them were interested to learn. All in all they were and are added value students to our program.”
Enrollees
Last year, the learning institution had 28 enrollees from Saudi Arabia; five from Kuwait; 37 from the United Arab Emirates (UAE); two from Bahrain; 46 from another Gulf country; and seven from Manila of which 26 took a doctorate program; 58 took MBAs; 12 took masters in Management
Major in Educational Management (MMEM); another 12 took Masters of Arts in Education (MAED) and 10 went for a Safety Engineering Diploma.
Dr. Malagapo’s program started in Oct 2005 following a memorandum of agreement between Al Andalus International School in Saudi Arabia where he was teaching at and The Philippine Christian University in Taft Avenue, Manila with the latter’s graduate programs.
The teaching module involves what is called as a Blended Learning System – online, classroom, immersion, and case studies, among others. The faculty members are local and visiting professors from Manila and immersion professors from Harvard University in Singapore and University of Asia and the Pacific’s Philippine campus.
“In 2011, I signed an MOA with Lyceum of the Philippine University in Batangas offering MBA and other Master’s degrees,” Dr. Malagapo said.
The number of candidates for graduation in 2017 were 53.
