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Starting in August, engineering students won't have to go far to get their Bachelor's Degree. In fact, after 5 years, they can graduate right from St John's College Junior College.
That's because today, SJCJC signed an MOU with Rafael Landivar University in Guatemala that promises plenty of collaboration between the two schools. And that starts with an engineering program, which will see students graduate with degrees from both establishments. Today, the president of SJCJC told us more.
Mirtha Peralta, President, St John's College
"In the fall of 2023, we're going to start our Bachelor's program and so this relationship is very important, it is joining two conferences, one from Latin America, and also one from the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities, it is joining 30 universities from Latin America and 38 university from North America, including Belize."
"This is going to translate for a lot of opportunity for our students, for our faculty, and of course for Belize. One of the first things we're working on with Rafael Landivar is in the development of the civil engineering program here for the Belizeans students which is going to bring a lot of goodness, one because it's going to be an opportunity for them to do that degree here in Belize and also that is going to be less costly than going anywhere else in the world. As we announced today, the degree is going to be a dual degree and so students from this college are going to received a St John's College Bachelor's Degree but also receive a Bachelor's Degree from Rafael Landivar and Rafael Landivar has instituted civil engineering for the past 55 years so it's 55 years of experience that our students will be able to get, it's an accredited university and it is known worldwide."
"I've been here at the college for 20 years and I've seen so many students go away to study, especially engineering, and they never return to Belize and so we're hoping that by having this program here in Belize that our students are going to be able to stay in Belize."
"The program is going to be a pre-engineering two years Associates Degree, and three years for the Bachelor program, so in five years, students will be able to complete the engineering degree."
Martha Perez, Academic Vice Chancellor, Rafael Landivar
"We have a lot of plans for collaboration for example, students and teachers exchange programs, we want plans to create together new programs in specific areas, engineering, management, tourism, for example. We are planning to exchange programs to learn English and learn Spanish too, it's a huge idea for all of our students."
And according to the senior executive engineer at the Ministry of Infrastructure, Development, and Housing, it's a much needed program to fill the gaps Belize currently has.
Irving Thimbriel, Senior Executive Engineer, MIDH
"Using my own experience as I did when I spoke earlier, the difficulty in getting opportunities in the past and even now it's very difficult to get an opportunity to go and study engineering which is one of the very important fields of study here for Belize. We see climate change, we see all the different situations with the roads, with the buildings, and everything that has changed, the flooding all of those are works that civil engineers do and so there's a great work for civil engineers in Belize but the opportunities, it's not easy, it's very costly and it's not readily available locally so the move that St John's is making now is really and truly a momentous one for us as a people that opportunity will be afforded right here in our own country."
Mirtha Peralta, President, St John's College
"The cost is and as we said and we put out already, the cost is going to be $300 per credit hour and so if you're doing a semester of 15 credits or 18 credits it would be around $5,000 and if we multiply that by 6 semester it's going to be a little bit under $30,000, which is, you know, I'm a parent of an engineering student that went away and that is not even a fraction of what it costs to get an engineering degree and so it is really for the Belizean people."
