National University of Singapore was founded in 1905 as a modest medical college with just 23 students. Today, it’s considered the flagship university of Singapore, and is counted among the best universities in Asia and the world. It is renowned for its excellent education structure, and for pioneering new models of education
Superlative Structure
Known as the oldest Institute of Higher Learning (IHL) in Singapore, National University of Singapore is a publicly funded university. It is the largest university in the country in terms of student enrolment and offers a broad-based curriculum, comprising multi-disciplinary courses and cross-faculty enrichment. It is also highly respected for its wide range of academic programmes, innovative entrepreneurship education, and experiential learning.
In 1980, the University of Singapore and Nanyang University were merged to establish the National University of Singapore in its present form. This was done by the government to pool the resources of these two institutions into one single and stronger entity along with the promotion of English as Singapore’s main language of education.
Believing that education is much beyond just acquisition of knowledge through textbooks and theories, NUS set up the Centre for Management of Innovation and Technopreneurship in 1988. The activities of NEC cover four areas – a business incubator, experiential education, entrepreneurship development, and entrepreneurship research. Further, the University’s rigorous academic programmes taught and supervised by world-class professors instill into students critical thinking abilities across disciplines and the spirit of entrepreneurship.
Currently, the National University of Singapore has 13 undergraduate and 4 graduate schools spread over three campus locations in Singapore, namely, Kent Ridge, Bukit Timah and Outram. It has 30 University-level Research Institutes and Centres as well.
The Bukit Timah campus of the university includes the Faculty of Law, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, and research institutes.
Strengthening Roots & Wings
NUS helps thrive meaningful living-learning communities on its campus, with specialized residential college programmes. To supplement international-standard on-campus learning, it also offers off-campus opportunities to its students through its blended learning courses that integrate face-to-face learning with online learning. Through its Centre for Future-ready Graduates (CFG), it lets its students do internships with industry leaders and gather hands-on industry experience and future-ready expertise. To further harness the entrepreneurial mindset of its students, NUS started the NUS Overseas Colleges (NOC) programme in the year 2001.
With a holistic approach to develop personal and interpersonal skills of its students, NUS also initiated in January 2016 a foundational life skills programme to inspire its students towards lifelong learning and to profit from each such experiential learning. Acclaimed internationally for its high-calibre and innovative research in engineering, science & technology, biomedical sciences, and the humanities and social sciences, it conducts high-level research in collaboration with government, industry and NGOs, addressing real world issues through its 27 University-level Research Institutes and Centres.
NUS also serves as a launch pad for sporting champions and music geniuses. In addition, the Heads of States, Mr. Abdul Razak Hussein, Mr. Benjamin Sheares, Mr. Goh Chok Tong, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, Mr. Mahathir Mohamad, and S.R. Nathan had been students of NSU. Some other notable politicians who had been a part of NSU include Y. Bhg. Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Dr. Rais Yatim, who was Malaysia’s Minister for Information, Communications, and Culture & Mr. Ng Eng Hen, who is serving as Singapore’s Minister of Defense, at present.