28 July 2009

Avondale helps Mission College become university

Muak Lek, Thailand
Mission College/Record staff

Avondale College has helped the Adventist Church's Mission College in Thailand become a university. "The partnership involving Avondale's participation in our Masters Program was vital to attaining University status," reports Dr Warren Shipton, Mission College president. "We could not have reached the nominated government targets easily on our own."

Thailand's Minister of Education, Churin Laksanawisit, signed the necessary documents conferring university status on the college on June 30.

An Australian who has led Mission College for the past five years, Dr Shipton is grateful for the hard work and enthusiasm of the college's faculty and staff, as well as what he describes as the evident leading of God at the various crisis points experienced during the protracted document preparation, application process and political turmoil.

"All achievements are built on the shoulders of those who have gone before," says Dr Shipton. "We are thankful for those whose vision, efforts and prayers have contributed to the institution we see today."

Now known as Asia-Pacific International University, Mission College is the only Adventist tertiary institution in the Southeast-Asia region. According to Dr Shipton, the new name name was chosen carefully to give the greatest potential to attract students from the catchment area. "We are dedicated to providing opportunities to bring hope, health and happiness to the people of the region and focusing their minds on the certainty of peace and prosperity in God's eternal kingdom," he says.

Originally established in Singapore in 1905 by the then-Australasian Union Conference, Mission College began a School of Nursing in Bangkok in 1947 and moved to its present campus in central Thailand about 10 years ago, when the Singaporean government resumed the original campus.

The new university offers programs in liberal arts, nursing science and science, and currently attracts more than 900 students from 40 countries. It operates an Adventist Colleges Abroad program in Thai and Chinese culture.

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