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| "The Graduate School and the Theological Seminary (Far East) of PUC..." |
The Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies (AIIAS) was established by the Seventh-day Adventist Church because of its commitment to meet the growing needs of the church for college teachers, theologians, church leaders, health professionals, and treasurers with international level, graduate education.
Beginning in 1956, the church offered graduate extension courses from the Theological Seminary (then located in Washington, DC) on the campus of Philippine Union College (PUC), now the Adventist University of the Philippines (AUP). By 1965, PUC had added a degree in Religious Education to their MA offerings, and in 1971, offered an MA in theology.
On March 21, 1972, the Division approved the use of the name “Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, Far East” for the new institution, thus creating a Division seminary.
Four years later, in January of 1978, the Seminary and the Graduate School at PUC became the first programs to move from Baesa to the new PUC campus in Puting Kahoy. That same year, the Seminary became an institution of the Far Eastern Division of Seventh-day Adventists. The Division had been financially supporting PUC’s graduate programs, and now took up the decision-making and administrative authority.
The establishment of the Division seminary in 1972 constitutes the founding date for AIIAS, which at first consisted of just the Division seminary. There had been talk for many years of the Division also running certain graduate programs for the workers across the region, but there was no legal means to do so in the Philippines until Presidential Decree 2021 established AIIAS on January 31, 1986. Henceforth, the institution was called AIIAS, and came to be composed of two schools: the Seminary (now called Asia Adventist Theological Seminary), and the Graduate School, which began in 1988 and produced its first graduates in March 1991.
In 1991, AIIAS moved to its present campus near Silang, Cavite. When the Asia-Pacific Division was divided in 1996, AIIAS came under the administration of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, becoming the first General Conference educational institution outside North America.
From its early days, in addition to its campus programs, AIIAS has offered programs at off-campus locations to facilitate the graduate-level educational needs of the church throughout the region. More recently cohort programs expanded to South America, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
AIIAS Online was established in 2001 to offer quality, Christian-oriented graduate education to dedicated professionals wherever they may be in the world. In 2007, AIIAS distinguished itself as one of the first Adventist educational institutions to graduate students with master’s degrees from an online learning program entirely on the Internet.
In 2007, AIIAS began the first Seventh-day Adventist Doctor of Philosophy in Business program.
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