2004

Developments

At the Annual Presidents Meeting of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU) held in Chile, NUS was elected to lead the consortium of 36 leading research universities for a second two-year term.

Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKY SPP) was launched as an autonomous school for study and research in public policy, in particular the study of public policy in Asian societies. Key areas of focus will include the economic and social policy challenges pertaining to developing, transitional and newly industrialised economies.

NUS and Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) have jointly opened a Design Technology Institute/Eindhoven (DTI/E) at the TU/e campus in the Netherlands. The activities of DTI/E include education, research and technology transfer in the area of design technology. These activities will be supported by the Faculties of technology management, electrical engineering and industrial design at TU/e. DTI/E is an extension of the Design Technology Institute which was jointly set up by NUS and TU/e in Singapore in 2002 to focus on research, education and transfer of design technology to industry.

NUS continued to build up and diversify joint degree programmes with overseas institutions. New programmes initiated during the year include:

• a joint PhD in chemical engineering with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
• a Master of Law specialising in Chinese law with East China University of Politics & Law and Peking University Law School. It is the first programme to be launched by the NUS-based Asian Law Institute, a collaboration between the NUS Law Faculty and eight other law schools in Asia.
• a Bachelor of Social Sciences (Honours in Actuarial Studies & Economics), Master of Arts (Southeast Asian Studies), Bachelor of Philosophy-Bachelor of Science (Honours in Chemistry, Physics & Mathematics) and PhD in Physics with the Australian National University (ANU). The courses are offered under the Joint Degree Programme established by NUS and ANU, the first such programme between NUS and an Australian university.
• a joint PhD programme with Supelec to prepare students for leadership roles in R&D with a focus on infocommunications, microwave and radio frequencies, microelectronics, power systems, and control.
• a specialist master’s degree programme in International Business Law with the East China University of Politics and Law (ECUPL). It is the first overseas degree programme to be offered by the NUS Faculty of Law. Students in the one-year programme will spend six weeks at NUS and the rest of the time at ECUPL in Shanghai.
• a master’s degree programme in tropical infectious diseases with the Novartis Institute for Tropical Disease, University of Basel and Swiss Tropical Institute.

NUS has set up a defence technology laboratory focusing on advanced electromagnetics and radar research jointly with France's leading aerospace research agency Onera and French institution Supelec. Called SONDRA (Supelec, Onera, NUS, DSTA Research Alliance), the lab was officially opened in April at Supelec’s campus near Paris. NUS, Defence Science & Technology Agency (DSTA) and the two French organisations contributed $2 million in funds for the first two years of SONDRA's operation.

Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS) was established as an autonomous research institute of the University. ISAS' establishment reflects the increasing economic and political importance of South Asia, and the strong historical links between South Asia and Southeast Asia. ISAS will complement existing research and teaching programmes on South Asia within NUS.

NUS Nanoscience & Nanotechnology Initiative (NUSNNI) was officially launched. A University-level research centre, NUSNNI will help Singapore meet its needs for nanotechnology manpower and develop the technology into an engine for economic growth.

NUS medical education and research have been given a boost with the setting up of an office at the Faculty of Medicine by Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet (KI), one of Europe's largest medical universities. Apart from being a coordinating centre for KI's research collaborations in Singapore, the office will help facilitate existing programmes such as the NUS-KI Joint PhD Programme in Genetic and Molecular Epidemiology and promote new initiatives between KI and NUS. KI’s office at NUS is its first overseas.

NUS and the Maritime & Port Authority of Singapore have signed an MOU for the establishment of a Maritime and Port Research Programme (MPRP). This initiative will be a new framework for joint maritime research aimed at bringing about closer collaboration between government, academia and industry. A key aspect of the MPRP is the setting up of Maritime Technology Professorships, under which prominent academics and industry experts will be appointed to spearhead leading-edge maritime research with NUS.

Achievements

NUS has been placed amongst the top 20 universities in the world in a global ranking of universities by Times of London. In the category of ranking by faculty, NUS was ranked one of the 10 best universities in engineering and IT, and one of the top 40 in science.

NUS Business School has been ranked top in Southeast Asia among business schools with full-time MBA programmes in the region by regional business magazine Asia Inc.