Young and research-intensive, Nanyang Technological University (NTU) is the fastest-rising Asian university in the world's top 50.
The university has five colleges, one of which is only focused on interdisciplinary graduate research, and a new medical school, the autonomous Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, set up jointly with Imperial College London.
NTU is also home to world-class autonomous entities such as the National Institute of Education, S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Earth Observatory of Singapore, and Singapore Centre on Environmental Life Sciences Engineering.
NTU provides a high-quality global education to about 33,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students. The student body includes top scholars and international olympiad medallists from the region and beyond.
Hailing from more than 70 countries, the university's 3,800-strong teaching and research staff bring dynamic international perspectives and years of solid industry experience.
Five Peaks of Excellence
NTU's five-year strategic plan, NTU
2015, maps out how it will become a great global university by
2015. Under this, NTU will build on its current strengths and
heritage to make its mark internationally in five areas –
sustainability, healthcare, new media, the best of the East and
West, and innovation. The areas leverage NTU’s diverse
strengths, particularly its longstanding expertise in
engineering and business, and the interfaces these have with
various disciplines such as healthcare, science and the
humanities. With almost S$849m of research funding in the area
of sustainability, NTU is already a global leader in this area.
NTU has set up a medical school jointly with Imperial
College London to meet the challenges of ageing and healthcare
in Singapore. The Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, an
autonomous institution, will pioneer medical innovations and
bring about enhancements to the healthcare system.
Diverse disciplines for diverse talents
In the QS World University Rankings 2013, NTU is ranked 41st in
the world – up 33 notches in three consecutive years. The
university’s international standing has risen rapidly in recent
years and it has been consistently ranked within the top 1% of
universities globally (77th in 2008; 73rd in 2009; 74th in 2010;
58th in 2011, 47th in 2012). In October 2013, NTU climbed 10
places to be ranked 76th worldwide in Times Higher Education's
World University Rankings. This is the third straight year of
sharp ascent for NTU in the Times Higher ranking, having vaulted
a phenomenal 98 positions since 2010. For the first time, NTU is
ranked 1st in the world for industry income and innovation, a
big jump from last year’s 15th place.
In July 2011, NTU became the first university in Asia to be
rated 5-stars under the new QS Stars rating system. The new
system is a comprehensive evaluation by QS across 30 different
areas – a broader range of criteria than traditional rankings.
NTU scored the maximum of 5-stars each for eight key areas:
research, employability, teaching, infrastructure,
internationalisation, innovation, engagement and specialist
strength.
The Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, NTU’s joint medical
school with Imperial College London, one of the top ten
universities in the world, will train future doctors for
Singapore, pioneer medical innovations and bring about
enhancements to the healthcare system.
The College of Engineering, the world’s largest engineering
college, has six schools focused on technology and innovation
and a research output among the top three universities globally.
The College of Science, with award-winning faculty and
world-class laboratories, runs Singapore’s only direct honours
bachelor's degree programmes in the biological, physical and
mathematical sciences.
The Nanyang Business School is ranked first in Asia in
accountancy research and is consistently ranked as one of the
best Asian business schools. It is also one of only three in
Asia to be awarded both the EQUIS (European Quality Improvement
System) and AACSB (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of
Business) accreditations - international hallmarks of quality.
The College of Humanities, Arts, & Social Sciences is home to
the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, a top
journalism and media school in Asia; a fast-growing humanities
and social sciences school with niches of excellence; and
Singapore's first professional art school offering degree
courses in art, design and interactive digital media.
The Interdisciplinary Graduate School supports PhD research in
the university’s interdisciplinary research centres in
Sustainable Earth, New Media and Future Healthcare.
The National Institute of Education, Singapore's main
teacher-training institute, is internationally-acclaimed and
provides educational consultancy to countries from Abu Dhabi to
Vietnam.
The S Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), an
autonomous graduate institution of NTU, runs the Institute of
Defence and Strategic Studies, long recognised as a world
authority on strategic studies and security research. RSIS was
ranked second among university-affiliated think tanks in Asia in
the 2011 Global Go-To Think Tank Rankings.
The Earth Observatory of Singapore, established in 2008 with
S$150m in state funding, is dedicated to hazards-related earth
science.
The Singapore Centre on Environmental Life Sciences Engineering
seeks to become a world leader in research on microbial biofilms,
with the goal of finding new solutions in water and
environmental sustainability.
Well-rounded, global education;
tailored programmes for high-achievers
The university's academic and research programmes, with
real-world relevance, have reaped dividends in the form of
strong support from major corporations and industry leaders, in
terms of both research funding and partnerships as well as
global internship opportunities for our students.
NTU's undergraduate experience, offering a broad education in
diverse disciplines, including residential living and
international experience, has also received external endorsement
for its holistic curriculum featuring a rich selection of majors
and minors.
At NTU, academically-inclined students with a yen for research
can take part in the Undergraduate Research Experience on CAmpus
programme. High-calibre students with a deep passion for science
and technology also have the option to pursue the CN Yang
Scholars Programme, a premier undergraduate programme that
prepares science and engineering talents for top graduate
schools as well as greater feats in the 21st century.
Through its overseas exchange programmes, NTU allows its
students to study, do research and work at some of the best
partner universities and international organisations. Currently,
one in two students at NTU has at least one overseas learning
opportunity during the course of their undergraduate studies.
Tech-savvy and adaptable, graduates of the university are
sought-after and well-paid, drawing some of the highest starting
salaries among local university graduates.
Distinctive edge in science and engineering;
Nobel boost
As the main science and
technology university in Singapore, NTU has made substantial
contributions to Singapore’s drive for research and innovation
spearheaded by the National Research Foundation (NRF),
particularly in the high-investment areas of biomedical
sciences, environmental and water technologies, and interactive
and digital media.
In February 2010, NTU was globally ranked 8th out of 1,084
institutions that had attracted the highest total citations to
their papers published in Thomson Reuters-indexed engineering
journals, with 5,912 papers cited a total of 28,516 times.
Increasingly, NTU has been winning the lion’s share of
Singapore’s competitive research funds. From April 2005 to March
2011, NTU won more than S$1.3b in competitive research funding.
In FY10, the most significant external competitive research
grant received was from the NRF for the TUM-CREATE Centre for
Electromobility, set up with Technische Universität München (TUM).
The university has won a total of S$270m in government funding
for its two National Research Centres of Excellence.
A key node in NTU's pursuit of research excellence is the
endowed Institute of Advanced Studies, focused on promoting
science and technology at the highest level. The institute has
attracted 10 Nobel laureates and a Fields Medallist to its panel
of International Advisors, and regularly flies in Nobel
laureates and other scientific giants to enrich the life and
work of the university community.
Campuses
NTU's main 200-ha
garden campus - houses Singapore's largest on-campus residence
infrastructure including 16 halls of residence for
undergraduates and a graduate hall at the Youth Olympic Village
of the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in August 2010. Besides the
Yunnan Garden campus, NTU has another campus, NTU@one-north,
located next to the Biopolis, Singapore's biomedical research
hub, and Fusionopolis, a new epicentre of engineering and
physical sciences. With its strategic location, NTU has set up a
graduate school at the one-north campus. The graduate school
will better synergise the university with the considerable
national resources invested in the Biopolis and Fusionopolis,
and facilitate collaboration with other institutions and
agencies in the one-north region.
NTU@one-north is also home to the NTU Alumni Clubhouse. Its
proximity to the city means that it is more convenient for
alumni to gather and connect with the university. The one-north
campus also allows NTU's evening and part-time students better
access, so that the university can enhance its delivery of
continuing education programmes, through the Centre for
Continuing Education and Confucius Institute of NTU also located
at the campus.
In 2008, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, one of the
world’s largest foundations for entrepreneurship, selected NTU
as the first Kauffman campus outside of the US.
A university for the world
NTU’s global reputation attracts faculty, students and
partnerships from Asia, North America, Europe and beyond.
Working with local and global organisations, NTU actively
explores cross-disciplinary solutions for the future. Among its
academic partners are the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Stanford University, Cornell University and Carnegie Mellon
University in the US; Cambridge University and Technische
Universität München in Europe; and Peking University and Waseda
University in Asia. NTU works with many global industry and
research leaders, and has developed joint laboratories with
Thales, Rolls-Royce, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Robert Bosch and
Toray Industries Inc.
In 2009, NTU led the formation of the Global Alliance of
Technological Universities, comprising seven top universities
tackling societal issues through leading-edge science and
technology. The alliance harnesses the strengths of its members
– the California Institute of Technology, Eidgenössische
Technische Hochschule Zürich, Georgia Institute of Technology,
Imperial College London, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay,
NTU and Shanghai Jiao Tong University. NTU also contributes to
the global academic enterprise as a member of the ASEAN
University Network, Association of Commonwealth Universities,
Association of Southeast Asian Institutions of Higher Learning
and World Educational Research Association.
A rich heritage: national monuments on
campus
Gazetted as a national monument in 1998 and now housing the
Chinese Heritage Centre, the beautifully restored former Nanyang
University Administration Building, with a distinct oriental
character, overlooks the historical Yunnan Garden. The Nanyang
University Memorial and original Nanyang University Arch were
also declared national monuments of Singapore in 1998. The NTU
Art & Heritage Museum is an approved public museum under the
National Heritage Board’s Approved Museum Scheme; benefactors
who donate artworks and artefacts to NTU enjoy double tax
deductions.
