Raffles Colombo, a unique education provider in Sri Lanka specializing in Art & Design, celebrated its 3rd anniversary of operations in Sri Lanka recently. Raffles Colombo, which is registered in Sri Lanka as Raffles Design Institute Private Limited, is the local arm of Raffles Education Corporation Limited, a reputable education provider listed on the Main Board of the Stock Exchange of Singapore. Raffles Education Corporation Limited is the largest private education group in Asia-Pacific. Raffles Education Corporation operates 34 colleges in 31 cities across 12 countries.
(TRAVPR.COM) SRI LANKA - October 29th, 2013 - “Successful people like to be associated with Beauty” - Alex Quah, Director of Raffles Colombo
Raffles Colombo, a unique education provider in Sri Lanka specializing in Art & Design, launched “Are you Beautiful?” campaign recently. Following are excerpts of an interview with Mr. Alex Quah, Director of Raffles Colombo, where he gives insights as to how Raffles creates the foundation for those aspiring to be world-class designers and describes the campaign focus…
Q: Please elaborate on the culture, environment and facilities enjoyed by students of Raffles Colombo?
I shall not talk on facilities and environment as a campus tour will do that for you. I will share with all about the mind map of students studying in Raffles and the culture that we are cultivating. In general, successful people like to be associated with beautiful objects, whether it’s clothing, watches, cars, houses, people, etc. Beautiful is not just on the surface but skin deep and this covers creativity, intellectual, charisma and many other intrinsic values of a respectable and credible person. That’s the next Raffles campaign, “Are you Beautiful?” that we want to share the good things with all. In the design industry, we encourage our students to promote beautiful objects, designs that sell and shout loud to the market. A good designer must know how not only to design but to be able to promote him or herself with her products. The focus is the mind map of a student to think creatively to design something out of their inspiration and then have the ability to promote them commercially to make money and be successful. The effort to do comes from the fuel of life which is passion and sincerity to share with people good things. This in itself is one of the many formulas on the road to success.
Q: Please describe the history of Raffles and how it has grown to become what it is today.
As with all great educational institutions in Sri Lanka and across the world, Raffles’ beginnings are very humble. We started off as a small College in Singapore, a small dot in the world. But as is the case with the aforesaid educational institutions, through sheer dedication, focus and commitment, we have grown significantly over the course of the past 23+ years. Today, Raffles Education has grown to include 34 Colleges in 31 cities across 12 countries with over 30,000 students in the Asia-Pacific region.
Q: What are the advantages of having a campus branch in Sri Lanka?
Raffles having a fully-fledged campus branch in Sri Lanka offers several advantages to students and parents. Parents can make significant savings on the tuition fees and with relatively lower Cost of Living when their children study in Raffles Colombo. Keep in mind, that the child receives the exact same international curriculum that he or she would have gotten if they had studied in any of our international campus overseas. In addition to this, you have the choice to take advantage of the flexible transfer system throughout so many locations to choose, a unique aspect that no other school in Sri Lanka could offer to you. I remember the time I came across the Head of the Office of The Defense Attaché Royal Thai Embassy whose daughter was studying in Raffles Bangkok, Thailand. The father was posted to another country which fortunately had a Raffles College. Thereby, this made the transfer very easy and stress-free as we know moving one country to another can be very stressful to the whole family. This smooth transfer could not have been done if the school she studied in didn’t have that network for them to choose from. As you know, unnecessary expenses plus credit transfer issues arise when the modules your children study are different to what the other campuses you are applying to transfer to.
Q: What are the benefits the students gain by studying in the branch of the campus as opposed to a partner institute?
The advantage of being the largest and most global private education provider gives our students and their parents plenty to choose from the available Designing Courses in Sri Lanka. You can choose to study for a year or two in Colombo and then transfer to Singapore for another year or just choose from the other colleges in our network for the international exposure. There is always the choice to just complete the 3 years Bachelor of Design if you prefer to stay put. Some parents have under rated the necessary exposure needed for their children. The world we lived in had become smaller due to the technological changes. Exposure provides your children the cutting edge to be able to handle all people from all countries, to understand culture, belief and trust system, to blend in and most important to be independent.
Q: How do you rate the creative talent of Sri Lankan students?
The academic team in Raffles Colombo has seen the work produced by our local students and students outside during classes and workshops in high schools. What really impressed on them is the passion that fuels the creativity and also their ability to be able to produce and market them. Passion is the fuel of life as without that, we are probably just empty shells. Their creativity and logic of thinking is quite amazing when compared to many of the international students we have come across, as they have learnt one thing for sure – not to take life and opportunities for granted. Their potential and talents are vast and with the right system and network in place, the opportunities are open for them to seize the day and achieve their dreams.
Q: What kind of networking for student happened between Raffles Colombo and other branches abroad?
The Law of Success as quoted by Napoleon Hill; Success attracts success and failure attracts failure. For the students of Raffles to study in Raffles, their parents are already very successful people as not many can afford the fee of say SGD84,000 for a Bachelor of Design in Raffles Singapore. You got to be someone successful in your own field to first be able to afford to pay for the quality demanded of a School that is known for Design in Asia Pacific. Fortunately at Raffles Colombo, we are able to make some geographical adjustment to offer an affordable tuition fee for most Sri Lankan and neighboring countries around to be able to afford to study with us. The networking opportunity starts right in the campus where success attracts success. As with the famous saying “Birds of a feather flock together” successful parents generally make successful children. Successful parents desire to motivate their children to be successful and be better than them. Some of their children will take over their parents businesses and some will strike out on their own as entrepreneurs. In addition to that, beside Sri Lankan students, our students come from other parts of the world such as the Americas, Pakistan, India, Maldives and other neighboring countries. The networking starts in the campus itself when students work in projects and assignments as individuals and teams. Along the way, they find good friends or more and this itself is a form of networking by itself. With the network of colleges all over Asia Pacific, students have the opportunity to expose themselves not only to the local arena but internationally to tap onto our strength - “Asia is our Campus”.
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