Research and education are the raison d’être of a university.  Our undergraduate enrolment has grown more than 40% in the last five years but will expect to stabilise in the coming years.  We have made huge strides in revving up our research in recent years.  This parallels the immense strides of Singapore in turning itself into a knowledge-based economy.  We are internationally recognised as a modern research-intensive university, with strong technological base and traditions, and a highly rated business school.  We are rapidly building up our reputation in advanced natural sciences and have an innovative Arts and Humanities capabilities, something rarely found in association with science and technology.  The following highlights the significant academic developments in Academic Year 2007 / 08.

A most significant development this year is the arrival of renowned scientist and academic, Professor Bertil Andersson in April 2007 who took on the position of Provost.  Professor Andersson brings with him many years of experience as an academic and a researcher.  With him at the helm for the academic affairs, the University has been able to put in place the best practice structures and processes that would spur our development into a research-intensive university.  These would include peer reviews of research proposal and faculty for promotion and tenure decisions. The University has also been able to take advantage of the networks he had established as the former Rector of Linköping University in Sweden, as the former Chief Executive of the European Science Foundation and as a member of the Nobel Foundation.

Professor Jitendra Singh, a renowned global business management and education guru, and former Vice-Dean of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania (where he taught for over 20 years), joined NTU in September 2007 as the Dean of Nanyang Business School.  Prior to joining NTU, Prof Singh spent almost three decades at some of the best business schools in North America.  His goal is to grow NBS into one of the top 25 business schools in the world.

Another important change in leadership took place in April 2008 with the appointment of Professor Lam Khin Yong to the newly established position of Associate Provost for Graduate Studies and Special Projects.  Professor Er Meng Hwa has been re-designated Senior Associate Provost responsible for undergraduate education and who will also deputize for the Provost in his absence.

The major highlight is the award of the Research Centre of Excellence (RCE) for the Earth Observatory of Singapore (EOS) to NTU, under which the Ministry of Education and the NRF will commit to jointly fund up to $150m over 10 years.  Its significance lies not just in the recognition of NTU as a University that will host such a centre of research excellence, but also in bringing earth and environmental sciences to the NTU portfolio.  This will mean that we will cover the full range of the natural sciences at our University.  NTU will continue to give priority to the development of further strong applications for RCEs in areas of our strategic strengths.

Professor Kerry Sieh, one of the World’s foremost seismologist and tectonicist, from Caltech will join NTU as the Director of EOS.  EOS would investigate seismology and earthquake risk, volcanology and the regional impacts for climate change all leading to the mapping of risk in the South East Asia region.  Professor Sieh has assembled a group of some of the most talented earth scientists to take part in EOS, including Paul Taponnier from Paris and Chris Newhall, from the US Geological Survey.  

We have increased our competitiveness over the past year in gaining competitive external funding through individual grants and block grants. We have done well recently gaining 2 out of 6 NRF Competitive Research Project (CRP) awarded in 2007 plus a significant share in a successful collaborative CRP with another institution.

NUS and NTU, as equal partners, have won funds from the European Commission to create an European Union Centre, which will be hosted by NTU and located at our One-North campus and which will concentrate on policy research as a means of raising the level of knowledge about the EU in Singapore and the ASEAN region.

We are working closely with MIT and ETH in the CREATE initiative.  We will have an active research collaboration with these partners and a physical presence in the new CREATE campus. 

We also have specific collaborations are also developing ones with world leading universities such as MIT, T. U. Münich, Imperial College London and ETH Zürich. We already have established collaborations with Stanford and Cornell Universities and with national Research Institutions such as Fraunhofer Gesellschaft   (Germany) and the Centre Nationale de la Recerche Scientifique – CNRS (France). 

Will Hutton wrote recently in the Observer newspaper (London) “One can tell a great university by the companies that it keeps”.  Many top Multi-National Companies (MNCs) have set up joint laboratories on campus. The MNCs include Rolls Royce, EADS (the parent company for Airbus), Thales, Robert Bosch and Siemens. 

Inter-Disciplinarity

Key advances in research tend to occur at the interfaces between “traditional” disciplines.  Although there are many areas of inter-disciplinary activity, the traditional disciplinary focus is still strong.  New structures and policies have been introduced to encourage and foster such inter- and multi-disciplinary research activity and creating critical mass from the small pockets of expertise within the Schools.  Examples are the Nanyang Energy and Water Research Institute (NEWRI) and the Institute of Media Innovation (IMI) in inter-active digital media.  They build on and leverage on areas where NTU is at the forefront of scholarship, and encourage the Colleges and autonomous institutes to bring their expertise into new inter-disciplinary activities.

Teaching and Learning

The New Undergraduate Experience (NUE) that we introduced since 2003 is a most worthwhile innovation. It provides breadth and choice for our students.  With the development of overseas student exchanges, Global Immersion Programme and the University Research on Campus (URECA) programme, many students have benefited from the broadening and new skills acquired as well as the experience in research and overseas exposure.

Despite the success of NUE, NTU President appointed the Blue Ribbon Commission on Undergraduate Education under the chairmanship of Professor Haresh Shah, Emeritus Professor of Stanford University, and a member of NTU Board of Trustee to conduct a bottom up review of undergraduate education philosophy for NTU undergraduate programmes, to develop guiding principles and guidelines for revamping our undergraduate curriculum as well as developing future programmes.  The Commission, comprising faculty, alumni and members of Board of Trustees spent eight months on its work, and has recently submitted its final report.  It undertook exhaustive background research, reviewing relevant studies in North America and a study tour to European universities.  Extensive consultations have taken place, both formal and informal, with faculty, students, alumni and senior government officials.  The University has accepted the report and will be drawing up plans to implement the recommendations of the Commission.

Graduate education is important with the greater emphasis being placed on research and upgrading at the national level.  To support growing research activities, we will reform graduate education, especially PhD programme. Graduate education would be aligned with our research directions and priorities.

1. We recently introduced the bond-free Nanyang President’s Graduate Scholarship for graduates and final-year students to read PhD at NTU.
2. We aim to double PhD enrolment from just less than 2000 now to 4,000 by 2012.  This will bring the ratio of PhDs to undergraduates to levels comparable to that of leading European research universities such as Imperial College and ETH.
3. We will enhance our PhD studentship package to pull in students of good quality.

We are concurrently looking into phasing out Masters by research programme as a terminal degree. We will also need to review the breadth, quality and cost-effectiveness of our Masters by coursework programmes, which are geared towards the needs of industry and business. Given the relatively small talent pool in Singapore, we will also broaden our recruitment base to Eastern Europe, Central Asia and South Africa.

The foundation of a good university is its faculty.  The key to success is having world class faculty – attracting, recruiting and developing them.  As we expand and renew our faculty, we have the opportunity of enhancing the faculty profile to world class standards within a relatively short period of time.  We continue our world-wide recruitment through events such as the Annual AAAS in Boston and the Euroscience Open Forum in Barcelona.

1. Nanyang Assistant Professors (NAPs) – This is a new scheme to attract the best young faculty to NTU.  Over 300 applicants applied, and 10 were selected after a rigorous selection process.  NAPs will receive substantial start-up grants of $1M. 
2. National Research Foundation (NRF) Fellows in NTU. -  Five out of the recently awarded 10 NRF Fellows, selected from a large number of outstanding graduates from around the world, have decided to work in NTU, the most of any institution in Singapore. These outstanding young researchers will also bring start-up grants of US$1.5 million and be the nucleus of future leading research groups.
3. Developing Focus on Research. Young Assistant Professors in their first contract period (3 years) will be given lighter teaching loads, little administration, and a generous start-up grant to enable them to establish themselves in research.  This is in accordance to best practice.
4. Top Scientists.  We continue to attract top senior scientists to NTU as Full Professors to nucleate research groups around them.  This approach was the key to our success in winning the EOS Research Centre of Excellence.