By Francis Neil G. Jalando-on

CPU Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dr. Irving Domingo L. Rio, welcomed Myanmar Institute of Theology President, Rev. Dr. Samuel Ngun Ling and Dean for the institute’s Liberal Arts Program, Prof. Mai Aye Aye Aung.

On June 29, 2018, the Myanmar Institute of Theology (MIT) President, Rev. Dr. Samuel Ngun Ling, and Dean for the institute’s Liberal Arts Program, Prof. Mai Aye Aye Aung, visited Central Philippine University and met with CPU administration officials to discuss a partnership in offering a course in Master of Business Administration.

OIC President, VP for Academic Affairs Irving Domingo Rio, welcomed the delegation from Myanmar. He said, “We are partners in promoting education, and although we come from two different cultures, I believe that before sunset we can come up with an agreement since we are all Christians.”

Rev. Dr. Ngun Ling, for his part, was very happy with the hospitality CPU extended toward his delegation and he looked forward to a great relationship between the two schools. This was his second visit to the campus since he attended a conference as a member of the Board of the Association for Theological Education in South East Asia.

Dr. Rowena Liboon, Dean of the CPU School of Graduate Studies, and Prof. Aung proceeded with the negotiations. It was agreed that CPU would provide the course curriculum while both schools would have a number of faculty assigned to the program. The course would be offered to students of MIT. This formal agreement will be signed soon by both schools, either here in CPU or in MIT.

Myanmar Institute of Theology is a Baptist school under the Myanmar Baptist Convention, an association of Baptist churches in Myanmar (formerly Burma). The seminary of the school has been accredited by the Association for Theological Education in South East Asia (ATESEA).

It should be noted that the first principal of CPU (formerly Jaro Industrial School), Rev. Dr. William O. Valentine, worked in Burma together with the Burma Baptist Convention (now, Myanmar Baptist Convention) as an American Baptist missionary. In this upcoming partnership, CPU and MIT are just going back to their roots that have connected the two institutions since the establishment of the institutions.