By Reynaldo Andres/Philippine News Agency
BATAC CITY, Ilocos Norte – The state-run Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU) in this city has established agreements with two institutions in the United States to pursue collaboration in line with community services, academic programs, education exchanges, and research.
The two institutions are the University of California Riverside (URC) Extension, and the San Diego County Metropolitan Lions Club (SDC-MLC).
The agreements were contained in two separate memorandums of understanding (MOU) that were signed between MMSU President Shirley C. Agrupis and SDC-MLC President Leo S. Sicat on Sunday (July 21) and between her and UCR’s International Education Programs Associate Dean Dr. Jean-Bernard Adrey on Monday (July 22).
The ceremonial signing was held at the Hunter Steakhouse in Oceanside, California. The MMSU and the SDC-MLC have agreed to enhance the extension service competencies of MMSU faculty and staff through their participation in Lions’ Club activities in the Philippines and in the US.
In a statement sent on Monday, Agrupis said “the SDC-MLC will support the internationalization programs of MMSU and will help augment the university’s learning resources.”
“Aside from this, MMSU and SDC-MLC will also conduct humanitarian medical, dental, and optical missions in the communities this year,” Agrupis said.
SDC-MLC is one of the more than 46,000 local clubs of the Lions Club International (LCI), which has 1.4 million members in over 200 countries.
The LCI, on the other hand, is an international secular, non-political service organization established originally in 1916 in Chicago, Illinois.
Last February, the MMSU, SDC-MLC, and the city government of Batac held a medical and optical mission, and healthy lifestyle seminar for 700 residents of this city.
For the MMSU and UCR’s International Education Programs tie-up, both universities have agreed to jointly implement conferences, research activities and programs; exchange of academic materials and academic publications, faculty members and students for study and research, lectures and discussions; and development of capacity building programs on the governance and program design delivery of higher education.
Meanwhile, the collaborations with the two foreign institutions was part of the official working visit of Agrupis in California, USA on July 19-23 to meet the alumni of MMSU and its predecessor schools for the establishment of MMSU Alumni International Network.
Earlier in May, MMSU already tied-up with four US agencies — the International Language Academy (ILA) in Washington, DC; Texas International Education Consortium (TIEC); the Kansas State University (KSU); and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) — to strengthen MMSU’s academic standards in manpower development, conduct of training, enhancement of degree programs, faculty and students’ mobility, and research collaboration.
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