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DAP forges partnership with American universities

MANILA, March 30 (PNA) -- The Development Academy of the Philippines, through its Institutional Marketing Center, has forged partnerships with two American universities in its effort to explore and create partnerships with academic institutions in the United States while strengthening relations with similar groups and organizations in general.

This was done through memorandums signed during the US visit of DAP President Antonio Kalaw Jr. and IMC Managing Director Merliza Makinano, with a memorandum of agreement being forged with American University in Washington, D.C., and a memorandum of understanding being signed with the University of California, Berkely Richard and Rhoda Goldman School of Public Policy.

The MOA with American University intends to “explore cooperative initiatives between the two institutions” even as the US institution and the DAP still have to identify the specific areas or activities that they will partner in over the next five years, the duration of the agreement.

California-Berkeley pact

The MOU with the University of California, Berkeley, meanwhile, intends to “take the necessary steps to encourage and promote cooperation” in such fields as exchange of students, exchange of faculty members, exchange of publications, collaborative research and other areas that may later be identified. The partnership is also for five years and is being forged to “establish a basis of cooperation and collaboration as well as working relationship towards the internationalization of higher education in the fields of research, education, and in training programs of mutual interest,” as well as to “serve as a general framework for the establishment of an academic link and cooperation… and to facilitate detailed discussions for more specific programs of collaboration and advancement of international understanding” between the two institutions.

Signatories

The agreement with American University was signed by the American school’s Vice Provost for Academic Administration Violeta T. Ettle and the DAP’s Mr. Kalaw.

Signing the MOU with the University of California, Berkeley, on the other hand, were Professor Henry Brady, the Dean of the university’s Goldman School of Public Policy, and Mr. Kalaw for the Philippine government’s research and training institution.

During the signing, Brady cited the need to train public servants in America similar to what the DAP does for the Philippine bureaucracy. The Goldman School of Public Policy also has ongoing executive programs with India, Singapore, Brunei, Hong Kong and China.

Brady said he’s “very excited to work together” with the DAP in implementing the MOU.

Next steps

Ms. Makinano said the next step in the implementation of the said partnerships would entail identifying specific activities that will be undertaken and executed by the partner institutions.

She added that with the signing of the memorandums, one of her group’s objectives has been achieved as it further tries to strengthen relations with US institutions as well as with Filipino groups and Philippine embassies and chanceries overseas while benchmarking the curriculum of the DAP programs with those of other international academic institutions. (PNA)
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