SM builds the future via education commitment

A few years after the SM group opened its first mall, the late patriarch Henry Sy Sr’s vision extended beyond the building of a chain of malls.

When SM City North EDSA opened in 1985, the vision was clear: people’s access to products is essential but helping provide quality education is priceless.

In 1991, Sy turned his vision into a reality through a milestone partnership between SM Foundation, Inc. and IBM Philippines that led to the establishment of Asia Pacific College (APC).

In setting up the institution, Sy then quoted the timeless adage: “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”

APC president Dr. Teresita ‘Tata’ Medado said right from the start, the vision of inclusivity was very clear.

“Quality education should be available to all and this was APC’s way of helping the youth to be competitive information technology (IT) professionals for the industry.”

The SM group underlined the commitment to inclusivity when the company insisted that APC operate as a non-profit and non-stock institution.

It was the ‘90s, and the boom of the information technology (IT) sector was in full swing.

Countless theorizing and key innovators have alluded to interconnectivity beyond anyone’s imagination.

Encapsulated in APC’s core values of industry, integrity, and innovation, it became the College’s mission to educate students to become world-class with a strong IT-based foundation.

APC continues its legacy of providing quality education, earning the highest rating in four categories: inclusivity through a wide array of scholarships; online learning via hyflex (hybrid-flexible), which emphasizes empathy, equity, and engagement; adaptable teaching methods and employability with 92.8 percent of graduates securing key positions after graduation.

QS Stars is a world university rating system that was developed to allow educational institutions to showcase their strengths.

The institution has upheld its legacy of inclusivity, supporting 9,300 scholars: 7,000 from public schools, 1,000 from the Armed Forces of the Philippines and Philippine National Police and over 1,300 from SM Foundation.

Overall, APC provides scholarship support to 80 percent of its students, with P9 million awarded in 2023 and a total of P700 million scholarships over the last 18 years.

What started with only a handful of around 15 students, today, APC has over 7,221 graduates.

Beyond SM’s scholarship program through its corporate foundation, its advocacy to promote quality education through APC also allows any accepted public school student to pay only half of the posted tuition fee.