Fellow of distinction
Graduation
ceremonies were held in Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong in July with
almost 730 UniSA graduates crossing the stage to receive their awards.
But the spotlight was on Singapore this year when long-term partner of the University, Andrew Chen (pictured above), was made an Honorary Fellow.
A pioneer in education in the Asian region, Chen was the founder of the Asia Pacific Management Institute (APMI).
UniSA Vice Chancellor and President Professor Denise Bradley said Chen’s 17-year contribution as founder of one of the most successful private education institutions in Asia was extraordinary.
Accepting his award Chen paid tribute to UniSA’s forward thinking institutional characteristics.
"I attribute UniSA’s success in transnational activities in the past 14 years to its espousal of practical, cutting edge innovation with action oriented follow-through, and its devotion to transnational partners with openness, trust, respect and responsibility," Chen said.
Chen established his Management Education Centre in Singapore in 1988 to meet the needs of up-and-coming business leaders for management education.
By 1989 he had forged an important partnership with the University of Hull in the UK to offer the Hull MBA to local students and in 1992, as the re-badged Asia Pacific Management Centre, he formed a partnership with UniSA, launching the University’s International MBA in Singapore.
At the crest of an enormous period of growth in education services in the region, Chen launched APMI in Hong Kong in June that same year.
Along with a geographic expansion, APMI , in partnership with UniSA, increased the breadth of its degree offerings to include Doctoral and Bachelor programs in Business Administration. APMI and UniSA worked together to launch the first Chinese language MBA to be offered by a western university into Singapore in 1998 and Taiwan the following year.
APMI’s offerings soon included a UniSA Master of Social Science in Counselling and a UniSA Bachelor of Education. By 2001 Chen drove an expansion into mainland China and in 2002 the UniSA Chinese MBA was offered in eight cities in China.
This extraordinary success attracted the attention of major US education provider, Kaplan, which acquired APMI in 2005, where Chen remained as Chairman of the new APMI Kaplan until 2006.
His entrepreneurial spirit and commitment to lifelong learning continues to make an impact in the lives of individuals and communities across the region.