MDIS student hostel to be ready by 2011

Source : Business Times - 4 Mar 2009

SINGAPORE’S oldest private education provider has begun work on a new student hostel to be completed by 2011.

The Management Development Institute of Singapore (MDIS) will use $80 million of its reserves to develop the hostel at its main campus in Stirling Road.

And it will pump in a further $20 million to add four levels to its two-storey administration block to open up more space for offices and teaching.

Speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony for the 15-storey hostel yesterday, Trade and Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang said the expansion underlines the institute’s responsibility to its students’ welfare.

‘By providing hostel facilities for international students within the campus, MDIS hopes to foster a greater sense of ‘home away from home’, leading the students to build an affinity for the institute and our nation at large,’ he said.

The hostel, designed by local architectural firm Ong & Ong, will have 782 rooms and up to 14 suites. There will also be a 495-seat lecture theatre and an 11-stall dining hall that can hold up to 600 people.

The expansion is part of an effort to woo more foreign students, said the institute’s secretary-general R Theyvendran.

About 3,500 of the institute’s current 12,500 students are foreigners, from 62 different countries. This number is expected to rise to 5,000 by next year.

Even after the hostel and administration block are completed, the institute’s expansion plans are far from finished.

Over the next five years it will invest another $100 million to develop new classroom blocks and provide more facilities to help cater to an expected increase in the student population. MDIS president Eric Kuan said the institute is looking beyond the current downturn and taking a long-term view by spending some of its reserves to build infrastructure that will enable it to attract more international students.

Unlike some other institutions, MDIS will not have to borrow or tap public funds as its reserves are healthy, he said.

MDIS has been moving aggressively to stamp its mark on the private education scene at home and abroad.

It became the first Singapore education provider to venture into Central Asia when it opened a $20 million campus in Uzbekistan in November last year as part of a partnership with the Uzbekistan Banking Association.

Dr Kuan said the institute is also scouting for a site in town for its city campus, as the lease for the current one in Dhoby Ghaut expires at the end of the year.