Universities
Introduction
There are currently 4 universities in Singapore. The first two universities, National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University are public universities, each having an enrolment of about 200,000 students. The third university, Singapore Management University is a private university that is funded by the government. The last university, SIM University, is private. Students receive an internationally recognized degree after completing their course in the universities.
In addition to the four universities, there are ten other private tertiary education institutes that provide undergraduate and postgraduate degrees.
Like other universities around the world, the universities in Singapore provide their students with dynamic and enriching learning opportunities, as well as mould their students into responsible and respectable citizens.
Furthermore, like the strong and enriching education system in Singapore, Singapore Universities have been recognized internationally to provide world-class education and is among the top few universities in the world.
National University of Singapore (NUS)
The National University of Singapore was established way back in 1905, making it the oldest university in Singapore. It currently also has the largest enrolment and widest curriculum out of the four universities.
NUS’s current Kent Ridge campus occupies an incredible 1.5 square kilometres of land and is bounded by the Ayer Rajah Expressway (AYE), Clementi Road, Buona Vista Road and Kent Ridge Park. It is planning to move its law school to the Bukit Timah campus by 2006, which it has won the rights to operate in.
The current NUS is actually a merger of the previous University of Singapore and Nanyang University which took place in August 1980.
NUS recently celebrated its 100th birthday in 2005. It is currently holding a year long continental programme which starts from 25th June 2005 as a celebration to mark this milestone.
Nanyang Technological University (NTU)
Nanyang Technological University is technically the third university to be established in Singapore but is the second oldest university that still currently exists. It was established in 1st July 1991, under an Act of Parliament. It has its roots from the second university that was established in Singapore, Nanyang University. However, Nanyang University merged with the University of Singapore in 1980 to form NUS and no longer exists. In its place, 11 years later, from the ashes of Nanyang University, NTU was born.
NTU’s campus occupies 2 square kilometres of land in Jurong, the western part of Singapore. This campus is called the Yunnan Garden Campus and was originally built in 1986, with the world famous architect Kenzo Tange laying out the campus buildings on his drawn up master plan. Within the campus, one can find many modern and state of the art modern facilities for the learning and teaching purposes of the students and lecturers respectively.
The university is also actively trying to incorporate all its lessons with information technological advancements, pushing its applications into the World Wide Web. The computers all over the campus are linked to the internet with one large wireless networking system that allows anyone in the campus to surf and use the internet with high speeds, making research much faster and much more efficient. This network is maintained by the university’s Centre for IT Services (CITS).
Singapore Management University (SMU)
Singapore Management University was officially established on 12th January 2000. It is unique in it being the first private university that is government founded.
SMU is a university that mainly caters for students who are interested in taking up business management. While it is focused in its concept, its education system is broad based. SMU’s curriculum is modeled after the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and there was originally even the decision to issue joint degrees with the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. However, this decision was later cancelled.
SMU aims to develop confident and enterprising graduates who will create a world of opportunities for themselves as excellent business leaders or creative entrepreneurs when they enter the society’s workforce. To help them cope with the rapidly developing and ever-changing world, SMU has hired the best professors of their fields to allow their students to have a broad based education and even collaborated with successful businessmen for them to offer management advice and experiences to allow the students to combine their academic knowledge with practical applications as shown by real life examples.
SMU has sparked controversies with local and regional media with their constant claim of being “different” from the other local universities. Its advertisements and slogans have made people wonder about how exactly different or better SMU graduates are as compared to the rest.
SIM University (UniSIM)
SIM University, Singapore’s 4th university, has been approved by the Ministry of Education to awards its own degrees with it being a private university. Its current campus is at 461 Clementi Road and it will take over the roles of the SIM Open University Centre. Its first intake of students will be in 2006.
