2006

Developments

The first of April marked the beginning of a new chapter in NUS' development as Singapore's global university. By becoming a not-for-profit university company limited by guarantee, NUS will adopt a new model of governance with greater autonomy to chart its own destiny, differentiate itself and pursue new heights of excellence in education, research and service. A Board of Trustees which takes on the role of a Board of Directors will guide NUS management towards achieving the University's mission and goals.

NUS hosted the Inaugural IARU Presidents' Meeting on 14 January to officially launch the International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU). IARU members held discussions on potential IARU research collaboration, covering topics such as movement of people, ageing and health, food and water, energy and environment, and security.

NUS established the Shanghai, Seoul and Singapore University Alliance (S³UA) jointly with Korea and Fudan Universities. As part of initial implementation plans, Korea University will focus on Asian MBA programmes, while NUS and Fudan will spearhead programmes relating to Asian financial markets and bioscience, respectively. Research and education programmes initiated under S³UA will be globally oriented, with a significant focus on Asia.

NUS President Professor Shih Choon Fong was appointed Chairman Emeritus of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU) after completing two terms as APRU Chair. The APRU Secretariat continues to be based at NUS.

Professor Shih was also appointed Chair of the Governing Board, APRU World Institute – an institute of advanced studies that aims to gather outstanding researchers from around the world to engage in multi-disciplinary research on issues of global importance.

A China Strategy Committee has been formed to develop the overarching strategies and goals for NUS activities in China. One of its key priorities is to strengthen NUS presence in Beijing through an office. The Committee will also work towards sending 1,000 undergraduate students annually to China for field trips, study missions and work in start-ups.

As part of the China strategy, a China Alumni Secretariat was set up in Beijing on 20 October 2006 to support alumni activities and build partnerships with universities and organisations in China.

NUS signed an MOU with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) to establish the NUS College in Bangalore (NCBA) – the fifth worldwide and first overseas college for graduate students. The NCBA programme is designed to expose NUS students to new developments in IT, science and technology in the city considered the Silicon Valley of India. About 25 NUS students will be selected each year to work in high-tech start-ups in Bangalore while studying business, engineering, IT and science courses at IISc. The first batch of 10 NCBA students will start their year-long internship by December this year.

NUS will develop its Bukit Timah Campus (BTC) strategically as a hub for law, public policy and research. The Faculty of Law has re-located to BTC in July 2006 while the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, Asia Research Institute, East Asian Institute and Institute of South Asian Studies will shift to the campus in December 2006. To develop as a single community in a multi-campus NUS, a BTC Management Office has been set up to deliver seamless services between Kent Ridge campus and BTC.

The Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore (GMS) entered a new phase of its development with the groundbreaking of its site at Outram Campus. Expected to be ready in 2009, the campus will occupy an area of 23,000 sq metres with space for wet-lab research, classrooms, teaching labs, and administrative offices.

NUS launched its 14th Alumni Chapter in Melbourne to boost its global network of alumni associations.

NUS paid tribute to the generosity and vision of the late Tan Sri Dr Lee Kong Chian and the late Tan Sri Dr Tan Chin Tuan in a dedication ceremony at University Hall on 29 May 2006. NUS Chancellor Mr S R Nathan unveiled two foundation stones in honour of the two renowned philanthropists who have played a significant role in enhancing the quality of education and research at NUS. The Lee Foundation, set up by Dr Lee, and the Tan Chin Tuan Foundation established by Dr Tan, donated a total of $59m to NUS last year. Other highlights of the ceremony include the unveiling of portraits of NUS Chancellors, as well as those of Eminent Alumni − Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong and Dr Tony Tan.

Part of the donation by The Lee Foundation and Tan Chin Tuan Foundation has gone towards establishing Centennial Professorships for the appointment of top global talents. Renowned experts in their respective fields who have been appointed Centennial Professors are:

• Professor Artur Ekert (Leigh Trapnell Professor of Quantum Physics, University of Cambridge) – Lee Kong Chian Centennial Professor (overseas);
• Professor Subra Suresh (Ford Professor of Engineering, MIT) – Tan Chin Tuan Centennial Professor (overseas);
• Sir Richard Friend (Cavendish Professor of Physics, University of Cambridge) – Tan Chin Tuan Centennial Professor (overseas);
• Professor Alastair Campbell (Emeritus Professor of Ethics in Medicine and Research Fellow, Centre for Ethics in Medicine, Medical School, University of Bristol) – Chen Su Lan Centennial Professor of Medical Ethics;
• Professor Barry Halliwell, Deputy President (Research and Technology) – Tan Chin Tuan Centennial Professor; and
• Professor Louis Chen – Tan Chin Tuan Centennial Professor.

Events organised to commemorate the University's Centennial include the:

• Groundbreaking Ceremony of Alumni Complex;
• NUS Centennial Conference for Advancement & Support of Education;
• NUS Centennial Heritage Car Rally Charity Challenge 2006;
• NUS Centennial Musical (featuring Dick Lee's first romantic musical Man of Letters);
• NUS Centennial Nobel Laureate Public Lecture Series (Dr Yuan-Tseh Lee, President, Academia Sinica, Taiwan);
• NUS Centennial Open House 2006;
• NUS Centennial Roving Exhibition;
• NUS Centennial Writing Competition Award Presentation Ceremony;
• NUS Global Entrepreneurship Summit;
• NUS Quality Service Day;
• NUS-NUSS Centennial Golf Challenge − which set a new Guinness World Record for the largest number of golfers teeing off simultaneously for a one-day golf event;
• 11th International Conference on Database Systems for Advanced Applications; and
• 2nd Materials Research Society of Singapore (MRS-S) Conference on Advanced Materials.

Ongoing efforts by the University to strengthen its curriculum and provide more diverse learning opportunities include:

• the launch of an e-Government Leadership Centre to offer research, consulting and education services in the area of e-Government to overseas governments. Scheduled to open in October 2006, the Centre is a joint collaboration between the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore and NUS' Institute of Systems Science and Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy;
• the launch of a new concurrent Bachelor of Laws and Master in Public Policy degree programme by the Faculty of Law and Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. Commencing in 2007, this programme will prepare law students for a career in the legal, civil or foreign service. Students could complete both degrees in 4½ to 5 years instead of 5½ to 6 years if done separately;
• the launch of a new Bachelor of Business Administration (Honours) and Master in Public Policy double-degree programme by NUS Business School and the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. Commencing in August 2007, this programme will prepare students for careers in government and its enterprises. Students could complete both degrees in 4½ to 5 years instead of 6 years if done separately;
• the launch of new Master of Laws (Maritime Law) and Graduate Diploma in Maritime Law & Arbitration programmes by the Faculty of Law commencing in August 2007. The master's course offers a comprehensive overview of legal matters relating to commercial shipping, marine insurance, shipping regulation and ocean policy. The graduate diploma will train professionals such as master mariners, chief engineers and graduates from other disciplines working in the maritime sector;
• the launch of a new Master of Science (Speech and Language Pathology) degree programme to meet the growing demand for speech and language therapists. Commencing in January 2007, the course is the first professional practice programme in speech and language pathology in Singapore. It is also the first degree programme offered jointly by the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine and the Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences;
• the launch of a Bachelor of Science (BSc) (Nursing) degree programme by the Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies starting from August 2006. Outstanding students will be offered the opportunity to proceed to the Honours year leading to a BSc (Nursing) (Honours). This is the first full-time undergraduate degree programme in nursing offered by a local tertiary institution;
• the launch of a BSc degree programme in project and facilities management by the School of Design & Environment starting from August 2006. The aim of the programme is to groom future industry leaders who can make decisions, shape policies, solve strategic and operational problems and implement best management practices in the built environment;
• the launch of a Bachelor of Business Administration with specialisation in accounting by the NUS Business School starting from August 2006. Apart from being equipped with accounting and management skills, students will be able undergo internships and sign up for mentoring programmes with graduate students. The course will start off with an intake of 100 students and will gradually increase to 250 a year;
• revamping of the real estate degree programme at the School of Design & Environment (SDE) for students to specialise right from the start of their course and choose from a bigger offering of modules such as real estate finance & investment, management & development, and urban policy & urban planning; and
• an MOU with SIM University (UniSIM) to establish academic ties and cooperate on staff interaction for teaching, research and curriculum developments, as well as a scheme to allow students to take up courses at each other's university and obtain credits for their course of study.

The global dimension of NUS education was expanded with the following initiatives:

• establishment of the Berkeley-NUS Risk Management Institute (RMI) in collaboration with the Haas School of Business at University of California, Berkeley. RMI aims to generate and disseminate leading knowledge on risk management through financial research, executive education and certification programmes;
• a concurrent Bachelor of Computing in Communications & Media and Master of Entertainment Technology programme with the Entertainment Technology Centre, Carnegie Mellon University;
• a Double Master of Laws degree programme with New York University School of Law;
• NUS-in-Yale and Yale-in-Singapore summer programmes for Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University Scholars Programme and Yale University undergraduates to study and interact with each other;
• Faculty of Law and other Asian experts will jointly conduct the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Regional Trade Policy Course at the Bukit Timah Campus from 2007. The 12-week course on WTO law and policy for trade officials from the Asia-Pacific region is expected to be hosted in Singapore for three years;
• signing of an MOU with the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta to promote student and faculty exchanges, and collaborative initiatives; and
• a general agreement with University of Tokyo for promotion of academic and research activities.

NUS Hollywood Lab was established in Los Angeles, California, to foster international R&D collaboration and technology commercialisation for interactive and digital media. Working closely with major Hollywood movie studios, universities and entertainment companies in North America, the research lab will focus on international R&D collaborations, student exchange and visiting professor programmes, and joint business ventures between Singapore and the US.

NUS will host Singapore's first world-scale R&D centre for water technologies in partnership with a unit of global corporation General Electric (GE). Areas of research to be conducted by GE Water & Process Technologies Global R&D Centre include water treatment and systems integration, fundamental chemical and membrane applications and ion-exchange technology. The centre will contribute to Singapore's development into a global hydrohub.

NUS Centre for Health Services Research was established in collaboration with non-profit institution RAND Corporation in the US to accelerate the development and implementation of health services research in Singapore.

NUS signed an MOU with St Jude Children's Research Hospital in Tennessee, USA, charity organisation Viva Foundation and NUH to establish the Viva Foundation for Children with Cancer (VFCC). VFCC will focus on improving the treatment and survival rate of children with cancer in Singapore and elsewhere in Asia.

An Office of India Research Initiatives (OIRI) has been set up within the NUS Office of Deputy President (Research and Technology) to bring about greater research collaboration between NUS and leading Indian universities and institutes. OIRI will facilitate research interactions through funding visits to laboratories of both countries, as well as for graduate students to work on research projects of common interest that may lead to joint degree programmes.

A Centre for Biomedical Ethics (CME) was established at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine. Singapore's first academic centre for biomedical ethics, CME will conduct research on bioethical issues relevant to Singapore.

The Neptune Orient Lines Fellowship Fund was launched at NUS to spearhead research in enhancing knowledge and expertise in the field of global cargo transportation and logistics. NUS will collaborate with MIT, Tsinghua University and Singapore Management University in the first two projects which will focus on maritime transportation and development.

Achievements

NUS was ranked amongst the World's Top 20 and Top 3 universities in Asia in the QS World University Rankings 2006 conducted by Times of London. In rankings by discipline, NUS was placed 8th for Technology, 9th for Biomedicine, 11th for Social Sciences, and 22nd for both Arts & Humanities and Science. Criteria used for this year's rankings include research quality (peer review by 3,703 academics who were asked to identify up to 30 universities best for research within their own field of expertise, and citations per faculty); teaching quality; and graduate employability (recruiter review by 736 employers worldwide).

Newsweek ranked NUS one of the top three global universities in Asia and Australasia, and 31st overall in the world. The international magazine's ranking of global universities took into account openness and diversity, as well as distinction in research.

Financial Times ranked NUS Business School's full-time MBA programme 92nd in the world and 3rd in Asia. Besides its overall ranking, the School was rated fifth in terms of international mobility, which traces the employment movements of its alumni. Other criteria used include research output, employment rate of graduates and the percentage of faculty with doctorates.

Financial Times ranked NUS’ Asia Pacific Executive MBA (EMBA) programmes 29th in the world. NUS Business School’s EMBA programmes, in English and Chinese, were ranked according to criteria such as faculty qualifications and research output, diversity of faculty and students, and career progress of alumni.

Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) ranked NUS Business School 99th in their survey of the best full-time MBA programmes in the world. EIU, the business information arm of The Economist magazine, used criteria such as faculty and student quality and effectiveness in opening new career opportunities for graduating students.

NUS Business School was ranked 51st worldwide in research rankings published by the University of Texas, Dallas. According to the Texas university's survey from 2001 to 2005, the NUS school is rated fourth worldwide outside North America.

TopMBA.com International Recruiter Survey 2006 rated NUS Business School the most preferred school from which to recruit MBA graduates amongst business schools in Asia Pacific. The survey of 455 companies in 33 countries was conducted by QS Quacquarelli Symonds, the world’s leading network for top careers and education.

Centennial II, a race car designed and built by a team of engineering students, was ranked 9th in the world for overall design at the Formula Society of Automotive Engineering (FSAE) competition held in Michigan. Overall, it was ranked 1st in Asia and 27th globally.

A team of students from the Faculty of Law emerged champions at the 4th Annual International Inter-University Intellectual Property Mooting Competition held at Oxford University.