Both institutions remain separate in terms of accreditation; MST is a provider of ACT courses in Bible and Theology, while Eastern is a Higher Education Provider in its own right. However the opportunities now available to students have significantly broadened, with new avenues for interdisciplinary Christian education, and cross-institutional credit for a range of subjects.
In announcing the collaborative partnership in Ambassador, December 2016, Principal Tim Meyers said the new relationship would “significantly strengthen and broaden our capacity to serve the church, and equip God’s people to live for, and testify to, our Lord Jesus Christ. Being able to offer biblically focused courses at Eastern College Australia across a range of disciplines, including education, counselling, visual arts, the humanities, chaplaincy and community development, in addition to the existing courses at MST in theology, Biblical studies, mission and ministry makes for a rich, and profoundly valuable learning environment for all our students.”
“Today, you’d find it hard to differentiate an Eastern student from an MST one” Tim says. “The sense of community transcends school boundaries. The same applies to our support staff, who are now largely merged together. And while our respective faculties generally work within their natural teams (MST English, MST Chinese and Eastern), we are also seeing a sharing of teaching and delivery as well, with MST and Eastern faculty teaching in both institutions.
“Every day at MST and Eastern we see God at work, bringing about a beautiful convergence of theological truth, identity, calling and vocation in ways that shape women and men long after their studies here are over,” says Tim. “We are so thankful for this unique privilege.”
“Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil,” Ecclesiastes 4:9.