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About the Competition
The NUS Centennial Writing Competition is intended to contribute to the celebration of the University's Centennial by showcasing the importance of linguistic excellence, creativity and academic writing at NUS.
The Competition topic, "Ideas of a University", is inspired by the classic work of John Henry Newman, an Oxford academic who lived in the 19th century. His inspirational work, "The Idea of a University", which was published in 1854, described the ideal university as:
 a place where inquiry is pushed forward, and discoveries verified and perfected, and rashness rendered innocuous, and error exposed, by the collision of mind with mind, and knowledge with knowledge. It is the place where the professor becomes eloquent, and is a missionary and a preacher, displaying his science in its most complete and most winning form, pouring it forth with the zeal of enthusiasm, and lighting up his own love of it in the breasts of his hearers…. It is a place which wins the admiration of the young by its celebrity, kindles the affections of the middle-aged by its beauty, and rivets the fidelity of the old by its associations. It is a seat of wisdom, a light of the world, a minister of the faith, an Alma Mater of the rising generation. It is this and a great deal more, and demands a somewhat better head and hand than mine to describe it well.
NUS is inviting past, present and prospective students, through this competition, to update Newman, either by writing an essay as he did, or by responding creatively to it.
You may write about NUS or about University education in general.
As this is the NUS Centennial year, one approach is to write about "the past 100 years at NUS". Or you might prefer to speculate about "the next 100 years…"
You are not expected to know about Newman or read The Idea of a University to enter this competition.
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