Cabinet of Ministers of Uzbekistan

Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Even as private school Management Development Institute of Singapore(MDIS) opened its first overseas campus in Tashkent on Wednesday, it announced further plans for expansion both locally and abroad, Straits Times reported.

It is looking at opening four more campuses in China, India, Malaysia and Vietnam so that its students can have a truly global education, spending a term at each campus.

In Singapore, it has reached full capacity of 12,000 in its main Queenstown campus and will move nine of its classes to a temporary campus nearby in January.

It is also looking for another campus in town as the lease for the Dhoby Ghaut one will be up soon. It also announced plans to build a hostel on its current site.

Wednesday’s opening in Tashkent, Uzbekistan also marks a Singapore education provider’s first forage into the Central Asia region, which includes countries like Kazakstan and Afghanistan.

The US$20 million joint venture is set up by MDIS and the Uzbekistan Banking Association.

The 52-year-old private school was courted by the Uzbek government last year to set up a campus there to offer more undergraduate opportunities to its youths.

The country with a population of 28 million, has university places for only 10 to 20 per cent of its annual secondary school graduating cohort of 650,000 students.

Uzbekistan’s First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Dr Rustum Azimov, who was the guest of honour, said the opening of the campus is a significant development for the country’s education landscape as it would help train up managers in industries like banking and finance.

"MDIS is an important institution for developing our higher education system. Uzbekistan is in a transition period and we need well-educated and modern managers to leading our business entities.

Offering only degree programmes for a start, it plans to offer MBA programmes in future.

Classes started last month for 275 students in three degree programmes in banking and finance, entrepreneurship and management, business and marketing. The courses are offered jointly with its partner, University of Wales.

Its month-old city centre 4ha campus has purpose-built classrooms and lecture theatres, laboratories and a hospitality training centre. It also has a 160-bed hostel, sports facilities, including an indoor swimming pool.

From its current enrolment of 275 students, it plans to attract over 2,000 students in the next three years and 5,000 students in five years.

A student, Abdullayev Husan, 18, who is studying the banking and finance course, said he hopes there will be exchange programmes so there is a chance for him to study in the MDIS campus in Singapore.

Having lived in landlocked Uzbekistan all this life, he said: "I’ve never seen the ocean before. I want to learn more about the world and see Singapore. It’s small but famous for its education," he said.