Humble Beginnings

Founded and formally inaugurated during the 19th anniversary celebration of the Manila Doctors Hospital in 1975 and first known as the MDH School of Nursing, the Manila Doctors College was originally located at the fourth floor of the Manila Doctors Hospital along United Nations Avenue. Some of its founding members include Dr. Ambrosio Tangco, Dr. Gonzalo F. Austria, Dr. Fidel Estrada, Dr. Jose Villanueva and other members of the Board of Directors of the Hospital. Among the pioneers who charted its initial direction was Mrs. Cristeta T. Patajo, the first principal, and her assistant, Mrs. Velma Iñigo.

Initially offering a three-year Graduate Nursing course, the College opened its doors to its first batch of students: 154 freshmen, who qualified from about 500 applicants. Out of this number, 130 qualified for the sophomore year. In 1978, the first batch of graduates of this program, now numbering only 118 because of the College’s selective retention policy, took the government board examination, in which one of its graduates landed in 8th place. In the same year, a permit to offer the four-year B.S. in Nursing course and the four-year Liberal Arts was granted by the Department of Education.

The College marked a major milestone in its history when the Metrobank Foundation acquired control of the Manila Medical Services, Inc. in February 1979. With the takeover, a new set of Hospital directors was elected, headed by Dr. George S. K. Ty as Chairman and Mr. Edgardo Espiritu as President. The College, as a result, saw prompt expansion and development. A new, three-storey facility was constructed to house more classrooms, laboratories and administrative offices.

In February 14, 1980, the status College was granted as a reflection of its varied course offerings, which included B.S. in Nursing, now under the College of Nursing, as well as B.S. in Psychology and B.S. in Zoology, now under the College of Arts and Sciences. The latter also offers a two-year certificate course in Pulmonary Therapy.

In a study conducted by the Board of Nursing of the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) in 1991, the College ranked 22nd out of 156 medical schools in terms of passing percentage in the Nurse Licensure Examinations during a five-year period covering 1987-1991. The same study ranked the College 8th among eleven Class A nursing schools in the National Capital Region (NCR).

In October of 1993, the College was registered as a non-stock corporation with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Two years later, the Nursing Program was accorded Level I accreditation status by the Federation of Accrediting Agencies of the Philippines by virtue of the authority granted by the then Department of Education, Culture and Sports, having satisfactorily met the standards and fulfilled all the requirements of the Philippine Accrediting Association of Schools, Colleges and Universities (PAASCU).

In December 1998, the PRC’s Board of Nursing recognized the College for placing 10th among nursing schools nationwide in the 1998 Licensure Examinations. In addition, the College proved the quality of its graduates and its pursuit of excellence when it ranked 20th in a report published by the PRC on the performance of 95 nursing schools in the Philippines with 100-999 examinees in the Nurse Licensure Board during a five-year period covering 1994-1998, garnering an average passing rate of 90%.

The PAASCU conducted a second consultancy visit in 1999, during which the College Administration was particularly cited for its support for the acquisition of Masters degrees by the faculty. In April 2002, the College formally earned a Level II accreditation.

The beginnings of a boom in nursing education in 2000 provided an impetus for the College’s expansion. As a newly organized Management Team prepared for the influx of students, efforts were conscientiously taken to maintain the quality of education. As enrollment steadily grew, the College adhered to academic standards imposed by both private accrediting bodies and concerned government agencies. As a result, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) granted full Deregulated Status to the College in October 2003 in the midst of the implementation of institutional expansion and curricular enhancement activities.

In 2004, the College inaugurated its new campus along the President Diosdado Macapagal Boulevard in Pasay City in response to a continuing increase in enrollment. A year later, on the occasion of its 30th anniversary, a new seven-storey facility was inaugurated. Aside from addressing a worldwide surge in demand for nurses, the new campus embodies the College’s objective to help promote quality education in the profession. With fourteen state-of-the-art laboratories and a full range of other facilities, an Olympic-size swimming pool, gymnasium and sports facilities and internet-ready library, the spacious, Mediterranean-inspired campus provides a most conducive atmosphere for learning.

Present Times

Present Times For more than three decades, the Manila Doctors College has been carrying on a tradition of academic excellence, establishing it as one of the country’s best nursing education institutions. Over the years, the College has adopted new techniques and approaches in instruction to enhance teaching-learning effectiveness.

Almost 50% of MDC’s instructors have completed graduate and post-graduate studies in various nursing or health-related disciplines. The excellent work of its competent ad highly qualified corps of professors, coupled with the advantage in clinical training offered by the Manila Doctors Hospital as the College’s base hospital, once more came to the fore when the one alumna of Class 2008 placed 9th in the 2008 Nursing Licensure Examination.

The outstanding performance of its graduates also landed the College in 1st place among nursing schools in nationwide with more then 500 examinees.

But MDC refuses to rest on its laurels. Having carved its niche in the nursing education sector, MDC now positions itself as a provider of high quality allied health education in the Philippines. In addition to nursing, MDC also offers psychology, zoology, and certificate courses in care-giving, nursing assistant program, and pulmonary therapy. It continues to develop new academic programs like the BS in Holistic Nutrition with Culinary Arts, a pioneering course for students who seek to apply nutrition principles in their culinary skills.

In an effort to provide balanced training to its students, the College also supports various development programs geared towards enhancing their other talent and skills. Its Business Model encompasses a career path from enrollment to employment to deployment. MDC firmly believes that its student’s future starts during enrollment thus ensuring the holistic growth of the students to prepare them professionally. The model employs the six Cs as a framework for the development and nurturance of personal and professional qualities to help MDC graduates become the ideal health care practitioner: Caring, Competent, Committed, Creative, Culturally-Adaptive and with Competitive Advantage.

And as the College embarks on the next 30 years of training health care professionals for institutions anywhere in the world, it affirms its commitment to further enrich its legacy of academic excellence and nurturance and thus evolve into one of best providers of high quality allied health education in the country.