Page 9 - Nanyang Technological University
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ON A RAPID RISE
Scaling New Heights
NTU is now in the top league in global was ranked 9th internationally in chemistry, surpassing
university rankings. What’s your take on this? universities like Harvard, Oxford and Cambridge.
We have been working very hard to transform this
university in education and research. The ranking, Critics may scoff at university academic rankings, but
whilst a blunt instrument for measuring universities’ the bibliometric data from research are hard facts on
progress, is a reflection of the fruits of our collective the ground that measure the quality of our research.
hard work.
So how will all the research benefit students
Indeed, NTU’s rise has been spectacular. and Singapore?
Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) ranked NTU at 13th There are two types of research – applied research
place, ahead of several Ivy League universities, and not-yet-applied research. NTU encourages our
and the world’s best young university for two years’ researchers to translate and apply their research into
running. Times Higher Education also named NTU innovations and indeed many have done so. The poster
the world’s fastest-rising young university. “Boey” of this is of course Provost Freddy Boey, who
has a string of innovations and start-ups under his belt.
Sceptics aside, these accolades have a significant
impact on students and parents. With NTU’s big NTU also has a track record for industry partnerships
leaps in ranking since 2011, the quality of NTU and we have attracted global multinationals like
students has also gone up each year. AY2015 saw Rolls-Royce and BMW to set up joint labs on the
the biggest increase of 89% in top students at NTU NTU campus. Top scientific organisation Smithsonian
compared to AY2011. Institution is also one of our latest partners.
What accounts for NTU’s huge achievements So our students gain early industry exposure when
in research, with NTU now being ranked the they work on projects with these esteemed partners
No. 1 research institution in Singapore? at our labs and some even go on internships with
I put it down to three reasons – people, people and these multinationals. Through these opportunities,
people. We have successfully attracted the most they get to apply their knowledge and build a network
established scientists in their respective fields and of industry connections, so they are work-ready when
also promising young investigators from around the they graduate.
world. NTU’s home-grown talents have also done
remarkable work. In Thomson Reuters’ list of 19 Aside from benefiting students, these initiatives will
of the world’s hottest scientists, only two are from in the longer term have economic value for Singapore
Asia – David Lou and Zhang Hua, both nurtured in terms of marketable innovations and solutions, and
at NTU. job creation.
We have the lion’s share of National Research NTU has been creating many opportunities for
Foundation Fellows in Singapore and what makes global exposure for students. How does a global
me proud is that our young investigators make up education benefit students, and what forms
about 5% of the University’s scientists but contribute do they take?
more than a third of the scientific papers in high- We are living in an increasingly interconnected
impact journals like Nature and Science. world, hence, learning must be relevant, holistic and
multidimensional, with a strong global perspective
So it’s not surprising that in normalised citation and interdisciplinary flavour. Recognising the
impact, NTU has been leading the top Asian importance of this, we target to have eight in 10 NTU
universities in the last two years, according to undergraduates have at least one overseas stint
Thomson Reuters’ data. Nature ranked NTU 40th during their studies.
in the world and the highest-ranked Singapore
institution in the Nature Index Global, which tracks We have ramped up on overseas exchange by having
high-quality research output across the globe. As more academic partners, and supported our students
a chemist, I’m especially proud that in 2015, NTU in various overseas competitions and internships.
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