Speech by Dr Eric Kuan, MDIS-BU Graduation 2019Speeches

Good morning, 

Guest-of-Honour, Ms Tin Pei Ling, Member of Parliament for MacPherson SMC;  

Dr R Theyvendran, Secretary-General of the Management Development Institute of Singapore; 

Special Guest, Professor Mark Cleary, Senate Member of the Management Development Institute of Singapore; Professor of the University of Bradford, UK, Visiting Professor, University of Plymouth, UK, and Assessor, Commonwealth Scholarship Commission, UK;

Special Guest, Professor Peter Fidler CBE, Senate Member of the Management Development Institute of Singapore and Professor of the University of Sunderland, UK;  

Professor Andrew Edwards, Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Business, Bangor University; 

Faculty members of the Bangor University; 

Distinguished Excellencies: 
His Excellency Mr Abdulla Ibrahim Abdulrahman S Al-Hamar, Ambassador, Embassy of the State of Qatar; 

Her Excellency Rebecca A. U Ibe, Head of Chancery, High Commission of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; 

Mr Mohd Nasri, First Secretary, High Commission of Brunei Darussalam;

Mr Alfonso Enrique Murillo Fallas, Charge de Affairs and Counsellor, Embassy of the Republic of Costa Rica; 

Distinguished Guests; 

Graduands and Parents; 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Introduction
1    A warm welcome to all of you to our third MDIS and Bangor University Graduation Ceremony 2019. 

Congratulations 
2    Today, we celebrate the success of our graduands. It is a proud moment for all of us, including their parents and loved ones, and lecturers, all of whom have provided a lot of encouragement and support to our graduands during their academic journey. Congratulations to all our graduands on their academic success! Graduands, please give your family, loved ones and lecturers a big round of applause. 

3    The academic journey undertaken by our 161 graduands from the Bangor University’s Master and Bachelor programmes has most certainly been rigorous. Despite the numerous challenges, they have emerged triumphant and acquired their globally recognised qualifications. As such, today we not only celebrate their achievements, but also celebrate their dedication and commitment in attaining their academic goals. 

4    Indeed, Bangor University’s excellent, quality programmes have provided our graduands with a strong foundation for career success minded that the University has long been recognised for its academic excellence, and delivery of multicultural; and inclusive student learning experience.

MDIS-Bangor University Partnership
5    Our graduates’ student learning is the result of MDIS’ successful collaboration with Bangor University.  Established in 2014, the partnership has grown from strength to strength.   Our commitment to the partnership has seen us expand the University’s academic programmes to include Business Studies and Finance; Banking and Finance; Accounting and Finance; and the MBA programmes in Banking and Finance; and in International Marketing. In addition, we recently introduced the Master of Arts in Education Studies. 

6    Bangor University’s programmes have also been offered at MDIS’ first  overseas university campus in MDIS Tashkent, Uzbeksitan.  A total of 7 programmes in the disciplines of travel, tourism and hospitality management; banking and finance; industrial management; finance; investment and risk; as well as computer information systems are offered there.  To-date, and 367 students have successfully graduated from the MDIS Tashkent campus in 2018 and earned their degrees from Bangor University.

7    It is signifcant to note that Bangor University is ranked among top 20 UK university for Teaching Quality; and Top 50 UK university in the QS World University Ranking 2019 .  The University is also amongst the first group of universities in the UK, and the only one in Wales to achieve the Gold award in the 2017 Teaching Excellence Framework.  

8    Graduands, the knowledge and skills that you have acquired will stand you in good stead as you enter the corporate world. Embrace lifelong, be resilient and remain relelvant to the challenges of the new economy which is underpinned by Industry 4.0.

9    On that note, I wish all of you every success in your future endeavours. Thank you.