The university sector in Singapore is undergoing a period of rapid change. The government has recently announced a further expansion of the university sector to accommodate the growing demand for university education. This follows the corporatisation of NTU to become an autonomous university in April 2006. Our undergraduate student intake this year is over 30% more than that of 2003, with new schools in the Colleges of Science and Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences. The research environment in Singapore has also been transformed with the establishment of the National Research Foundation (NRF). Even as the University is consolidating the growth of the past five years, we have made plans, moving ahead, to improve the quality of our academic offerings and research and to expand the scope and depth of our collaborations with local and international partners. This is in line with our development as a research-intensive university. We are already seeing some early fruits of our enhanced research focus and our collaboration with strategic partners. The past year has seen the establishment of two new research institutes: the Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute and the Lien Chinese Enterprise Research Centre. We have expanded our pool of international research collaboration partners. Our researchers have chalked up a number of inventions and breakthroughs, including the development of a nanophotonic technology which can potentially revolutionise the design of IT devices by dramatically increasing data transmission speeds. Aligning our research focus with that of the NRF, we have concentrated on driving inter-disciplinary research, thus positioning ourselves to vie for funding to set up research centres of excellence and win research grants for projects under the Competitive Research Programme Funding Scheme. Providing a quality education goes hand in hand with pursuing research excellence. Our students and graduates are also an important source of our research talent. A high-level commission has been formed to study how to reform, modernise and upgrade the quality of our undergraduate education so that it will be broad-based without losing discipline specialisation, flexible and yet rigorous and will produce graduates who will thrive in the changing world of the future. Similarly, a review of our graduate programmes will be carried out. Thematic inter-disciplinary graduate schools will be set up. The hallmark of a great university is its faculty. We need faculty who not only excel in research but are also effective educators. The University has started to implement an improved and more rigorous process for faculty appointment, promotion and tenure that is in keeping with the required high standards. A new tenure scheme has been created to enhance the careers of exemplary faculty and to attract talented academics to join the University. The alumni form another important constituent of the University community and there were significant developments this year. We opened the new NTU Alumni Clubhouse located at our second campus, NTU@one-north, providing a more convenient “home” for alumni. Three new international chapters of the NTU Alumni Association were established in Jakarta, Mumbai and Shanghai to better serve our ever-expanding global alumni network. We will continue to engage our alumni to strengthen their bonds with the University. Engaged alumni will contribute in financial and other ways towards the development of their alma mater. They have together with our other generous sponsors helped the University to meet its target under the 21st Century Fund campaign of raising $100 million by January 2007, four years ahead of schedule. We will soon launch the next campaign to secure the resources for the next phase of NTU’s development. The coming years promise to be exciting. There are many opportunities and great potential for growth. NTU has good foundations to build on. We value the continued support of all who have contributed and will continue to play their part in this venture – our generous funding partners and donors, our alumni, members of our Board of Trustees, and the University management, as well as faculty and staff.       Mr Koh Boon Hwee Chairman, Board of Trustees Nanyang Technological University