Southville International School and Colleges (SISC) will be the first Filipino school to open up a fully licensed higher education institution in the United Arab Emirates UAE) in a move that the school says intends to keep Filipino families together.
Southville in Las Pinas, Metro Manila, announced on March 3, 2020, that it has drawn up a global expansion plan with the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement between officials of SISC and the UAE’s Center for Global Excellence (CFGE).
Southville College Director, Felma Carlos-Tria shared with Good News Pilipinas that the UAE plans are intended to address the fact that a third of foreign workers in the Middle East are Filipinos. These overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) sometimes bring their family with them but more often stay overseas on their own, away from their families. When it comes to tertiary, or college, education children are sent back to the Philippines on their own due to the high cost of Middle Eastern schools.
According to the survey conducted by the Center for Global Excellence (CFGE), many of the parents send their children to the Philippines after high school, as the best colleges and universities in Manila are still more affordable compared even with the expensive schools in the UAE.
“Because of that,” Dean Tria says, “families aren’t kept together, which can sometimes cause depression in the children since they are away from their parents. We have some students here, in fact, enrolled in Southville. But we wanted to address the bigger concern of the community.”
Southville plans to rent out space in American University
Ras al-Khaimah and offer business and psychology courses at a more reasonable cost compared to other schools in the Middle East. They plan to expand the curriculum eventually.
Dean Tria also mentioned that although their partner will oversee school operations in the UAE, the curriculum the assessments and faculty hiring would be supervised by Southville. “It really is our curriculum brought there,” she adds, referencing how Filipino schools are preferred by OFWs.
The school is to open in Ras al-Khaimah, in the second week of August for Academic Year 2020-2021.
Southville is renowned for their impressive achievements as an institution and erudite alumni. For example, tenth grader Gwyneth Marguax G. Tangog is the first Filipino to receive a Pre-College level Certification from the Sugaku Kentei World Mathematics Certification Program.
Their students have also won medals at the World Scholar’s Cup and even earned the title of Top Filipino Scholars for the past two years for the global competition.
SEND CONGRATULATIONS and WELL WISHES to Southville International School and Colleges for this landmark move to set up a Filipino college in the UAE!
Want to know how to be a Proud Pinoy? Like, Follow, Subscribe to GoodNewsPilipinas.com and our socials Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Good News Pilipinas! TV on YouTube, for new story notifications and e-mail newsletters for updates on more Filipino Pride stories.
