NUS Successful, But Can Improve in Student Development
Text: Kwok Jia-Xin
The National University of Singapore is doing well but needs to intensify its efforts to become a leading global university, NUS president Professor Tan Chorh Chuan said during the state of the university address.
“With superb trek leaders and a great team, we have indeed made strong progress,” Tan said, likening NUS management to a group of mountaineers. “But we should realise that the journey ahead will be even more demanding.”
Held on Oct. 11 at the University Cultural Centre Theatre, Tan’s speech outlined six key successes that NUS had reached in the past year – an increasing talent pool, high student quality, greater research output, University Town’s vibrant student life, a burgeoning enterprise culture and a “ground-breaking partnership” in the form of Yale-NUS College.
However, Tan also said NUS should not remain satisfied with its current success. “If we become too comfortable with the status quo, our drive for excellence and differentiation will be lost and our decline will follow,” Tan said to a 400-strong audience comprising the board of trustees, senior management, faculty and students.
Tan then explained new goals that NUS has to strive for, one of which is developing students’ qualities to make them more well-rounded. Tan said students should possess “inquisitiveness, initiative, inner resilience, imagination, inclusiveness and integrity,” a set of six values which he called the “i-NUS” values.
Tan also mentioned that the university would take action to nurture these values in students, such as starting a new fund to support student projects aligned with the i-NUS values, and expanding the residential college system.
To supplement such measures, NUS also plans to intensify communication courses, focusing on critical thinking and writing, which would facilitate learning between students. “Being able to express oneself clearly is crucial for knowledge sharing, peer-to-peer learning and for the working world,” Tan said.
Facilitating learning between students, especially among those from different backgrounds would then help to inculcate i-NUS values by, as Tan put it, “stimulating a richer and more multi-dimensional intellectual and personal development.”
Professor John Richardson, director of the University Scholars Programme, said that the recent attention on critical thinking and writing was due to the Singaporean education system’s emphasis on rote learning in the past. USP has been offering critical thinking and writing programmes since its inception in 2001.
Richardson said, “Critical thinking may have been under-emphasised. The recent attention is simply an attempt to reset the balance.”
However, audience members said that the university would face difficulties in trying to develop students’ qualities. “The focus on developing personal characteristics is important,” said Diego Germán Mejía-Lemos, a doctoral fellow from the faculty of law who was invited for the speech. “But it’s challenging because you need to develop these qualities at an early stage, and you’re dealing with adults here. It’s certainly worth trying though.”
Tags: breaking news
The National University of Singapore is doing well but needs to intensify its efforts to become a leading global university, NUS president Professor Tan Chorh Chuan said during the state of the university address.
“With superb trek leaders and a great team, we have indeed made strong progress,” Tan said, likening NUS management to a group of mountaineers. “But we should realise that the journey ahead will be even more demanding.”
Held on Oct. 11 at the University Cultural Centre Theatre, Tan’s speech outlined six key successes that NUS had reached in the past year – an increasing talent pool, high student quality, greater research output, University Town’s vibrant student life, a burgeoning enterprise culture and a “ground-breaking partnership” in the form of Yale-NUS College.
However, Tan also said NUS should not remain satisfied with its current success. “If we become too comfortable with the status quo, our drive for excellence and differentiation will be lost and our decline will follow,” Tan said to a 400-strong audience comprising the board of trustees, senior management, faculty and students.
Tan then explained new goals that NUS has to strive for, one of which is developing students’ qualities to make them more well-rounded. Tan said students should possess “inquisitiveness, initiative, inner resilience, imagination, inclusiveness and integrity,” a set of six values which he called the “i-NUS” values.
Tan also mentioned that the university would take action to nurture these values in students, such as starting a new fund to support student projects aligned with the i-NUS values, and expanding the residential college system.
To supplement such measures, NUS also plans to intensify communication courses, focusing on critical thinking and writing, which would facilitate learning between students. “Being able to express oneself clearly is crucial for knowledge sharing, peer-to-peer learning and for the working world,” Tan said.
Facilitating learning between students, especially among those from different backgrounds would then help to inculcate i-NUS values by, as Tan put it, “stimulating a richer and more multi-dimensional intellectual and personal development.”
Professor John Richardson, director of the University Scholars Programme, said that the recent attention on critical thinking and writing was due to the Singaporean education system’s emphasis on rote learning in the past. USP has been offering critical thinking and writing programmes since its inception in 2001.
Richardson said, “Critical thinking may have been under-emphasised. The recent attention is simply an attempt to reset the balance.”
However, audience members said that the university would face difficulties in trying to develop students’ qualities. “The focus on developing personal characteristics is important,” said Diego Germán Mejía-Lemos, a doctoral fellow from the faculty of law who was invited for the speech. “But it’s challenging because you need to develop these qualities at an early stage, and you’re dealing with adults here. It’s certainly worth trying though.”
Tags: breaking news