SOUA 2016: Age of empowerment

“To thrive and to contribute in this age of empowerment, individuals must have the right abilities and the right mindset to make the most of current conditions, and to seize or create new opportunities. Universities, too, need to foster the right culture and ecosystem which gives members of their community the best chances of doing so.”

This was the underlying message conveyed by NUS President Professor Tan Chorh Chuan during his State of the University Address on 4 November at University Town.

Prof Tan began his address by pointing out that “we are entering an age of unprecedented empowerment” and that technology was enabling ordinary individuals and start-ups to do things once thought impossible. He cited examples where technical ability, coupled with drive and creativity, has produced amazing results, such as Snowstorm, the now-famous personal flying machine developed by students of NUS Engineering’s Design Centric Programme; Razer, a gaming technology company started by NUS Law alumnus Tan Min Liang that is currently valued at $1.5 billion; and NUS Business graduate Grace Ciao, whose unique illustrations using real flower petals have been commissioned by global fashion houses.  

However, he cautioned that this empowerment has a flip-side — since the tools and conditions that empower us in Singapore are also available elsewhere, competition will become fierce. “Complacency is the enemy of future readiness,” he added.

How then can we ensure that our community is well poised to compete and thrive, and make best use of the strong but uncertain winds of the age of empowerment to move forward even faster?

Prof Tan shared that the University would focus on three key directions — empower students for the future; enable faculty to stand out globally; and provide new platforms to create high impact.

Firstly, to empower students for the future, universities need to give greater weight to holistic talent development, alongside academic rigour.

Prof Tan said that NUS has built a strong framework in this regard, consisting of five focus areas — Academic; Global and experiential; Industry relevance; Lifelong learning; and Entrepreneurial — or A.G.I.L.E.

The University’s academic programme has been boosted by the addition of new courses such as Quantitative Reasoning. This will be complemented by a new pillar on General Education which will include a pilot multidisciplinary module on “Asking Questions”; short modules on “Learning How to Learn” and “How to Decide”; as well as a possible Computational Thinking module.

In terms of global and experiential education, students will have greater access to programmes that “will enable them to build fresh skills and networks, and explore new interests”. From 2017, more students will be able to stay on campus after the completion of the Ridge View Residential College Annex Block, as well as the partial conversion of Prince George’s Park Residences into a one-year residential learning programme. This would allow 50 per cent of NUS freshmen to spend at least one year living and learning on campus, up from 38 per cent in 2015.

The new Annex Block at Ridge View Residential College will be completed in 2017

Moving on to the third focus area, Prof Tan remarked that the University is making good progress, as more students are doing internships. A co-operative education programme will also be introduced, where students will spend more time in their third and fourth years working in a company and linking theoretical knowledge to real-world issues.

Regarding lifelong learning, he mentioned that the NUS is placing greater emphasis on cultivating the habit of continual learning among our students and graduates, as well as the general population. He cited the new School of Continuing and Lifelong Education at NUS, which develops executive development programmes and part-time degree courses in support of the national SkillsFuture drive, as an example of this.

Finally, in support of entrepreneurial education, a wide range of experiential programmes help to promote the entrepreneurial spirit more broadly among students.  

But students, too, must move away from overly narrow concerns with grades to empowering themselves for the future, said Prof Tan.

NUS took a step in this direction with the implementation of the Roots and Wings foundational life skills programme in January. The programme, which covered 5,500 students this year, helps students understand themselves better and develop positive personal qualities (Roots) and effective interpersonal skills (Wings).

Touching on the second key direction on enabling faculty, Prof Tan shared some examples of how NUS has worked to create an energising state-of-the-art research environment conducive to the breakthrough of transformative ideas. For instance, the Educator Track supports and recognises faculty who are making an impact in teaching; the $10 million Learning Innovation Fund-Technology, or LIF-T fund, helps faculty to use technology to better design courses; and the new Institute for the Application of Learning Sciences and Educational Technology will provide data and innovations for faculty to pioneer new evidence-based teaching approaches.

Prof Tan was also heartened to learn that the University’s administrative systems were in the process of being streamlined and simplified. One upcoming major project is the replacement of the human resource IT systems.  

In the area of physical infrastructure, upcoming projects will include an upgraded Data Storage Institute building to grow programmes in flexible electronics, robotics, and spintronics; a state-of-the-art engineering research building; the Deepwater Ocean Basin, a national research facility for physical simulation studies; a new net-zero energy building at NUS Design and Environment; and a new Wet Science research building in the Science-Medicine precinct.

An artist’s impression of the Deepwater Ocean Basin at NUS, a core feature of the Technology Centre for Offshore and Marine, Singapore

Finally, with regard to the third key direction, Prof Tan emphasised the need for “platforms that allow our faculty experts to work with academic, industry and public sector partners to tackle the most important societal issues”. He highlighted three such NUS platforms, the first being the Smart Nation Research Cluster. This includes the refurbishment of the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering building; a $16 million Institute of Operations Research and Analytics which, together with the University’s Institute of Data Science, will do cutting-edge research in areas such as healthcare and smart systems; and the newly launched $43 million NUS-Singtel Cyber Security Research and Development Laboratory, which will complement the National Cybersecurity R&D Lab and the Singapore Cybersecurity Consortium, both hosted by NUS.

The second platform is our Health System Innovation Cluster, which works in close partnership with the National University Health System and the Ministry of Health. This cluster includes the Health Innovation Behaviour Science Centre which aims to postpone or eliminate the onset of chronic diseases by encouraging healthier lifestyles; the NUS Health Innovation Financing Centre to analyse healthcare costs; and the Biomedical Institute for Global Health Research and Technology, which is pioneering smart diagnostics systems.

The third platform is creating a strong enabling ecosystem for the translation and commercialisation of research. This includes expanding the NUS Overseas Colleges programme; a new incubator for deep tech start-ups and exploring new overseas launch-pads. Furthermore, highly strategic industry partnerships such as the Sembcorp-NUS Corporate Lab in sustainable energy, water, and waste-to-resource technologies, and the Lloyd’s Register Foundation Institute for the Public Understanding of Risk at NUS have been established in the past 12 months.

“All these will help position NUS well to excel, influence, and contribute, even as we move into a future which is much more volatile and unpredictable,” said Prof Tan.

In closing, Prof Tan paid tribute to NUS Board Chairman Mr Wong Ngit Liong, who after 12 years at the helm, will step down at year end. Mr Wong’s visionary leadership, selfless dedication and hard work have been instrumental in NUS’ rapid rise as a world-class global university, he added.

He also encouraged the NUS community to draw inspiration from three individuals — 2016 NUS Honorary Degree recipients Speaker of Parliament Madam Halimah Yacob and United Nations Secretary-General Mr Ban Ki-moon; and former Singapore President and NUS Chancellor as well as 2012 NUS Honorary Degree recipient S R Nathan, who passed away earlier this year. “They were big thinkers, unconstrained and undeterred by the many challenges they faced…All of us in NUS can learn much from their inspiring examples,” he said.

Read the full State of the University Address.
See media coverage.

Prof Tan mingling with guests