Singapore Government Press Release
Media Relations Division, Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts,
MITA Building, 140 Hill Street, 2nd Storey, Singapore 179369
Tel: 6837-9666

It is my pleasure to join you today to officiate at the official opening of the Prince George�s Park Residences (PGPR) at NUS.

As NUS� newest student housing complex, PGPR adds 3000 units of student housing, which includes 200 studio apartments for married graduate students. With a variety of amenities including a 230-seater auditorium, 5 seminar rooms, and sporting facilities, PGPR is a major addition to the university�s ability to provide an integrated living and learning environment for its students.

It is important to note that even as the PGPR development adds life and activity to the area, the developers have taken pains to ensure that the Residences enhance the natural beauty of the landscape. The unique design of the PGPR buildings, which hug the terrain, was inspired by the architect�s effort to harmonise the development with the topography of the Ridge on which the Residences stand.

Together with the six existing residential halls, the addition of PGPR enables NUS to house almost 6,000 students on campus and offer a richer menu of residential options to students. This element of residential learning will be important to realise the synergies of living and learning at NUS as the University works to fulfil the three primary roles which a world-class university should play in a modern economy and society:

1. delivering quality undergraduate education;
2. developing graduate education and research; and
3. fostering entrepreneurship and industry involvement.

Let me dwell briefly on each of the three roles beginning with developing graduate education and research.

Over the years, NUS has devoted significant efforts to developing its graduate education and research. In addition to its many postgraduate programmes offers, NUS has strengthened its reputation by participating in strategic research alliances, for example, the Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA). SMA embodies NUS� effort to create a world-class centre for graduate education and research in engineering, featuring the most technologically advanced distance learning facilities available. Graduate students in the SMA programmes comprise some of the industry's best-educated professionals, both in Singapore and in industrial centres across the globe.

In research, NUS now works closely with 12 NUS-affiliated national research institutes and centres including 2 restructured national research institutes and centres. NUS also houses 13 university-level research institutes. Eight of the university-level research institutes and centres were established in the last 5 years alone, signalling the university�s active fostering of a spirit of open inquiry and its commitment to building its research infrastructure to facilitate and encourage research.

In addition to basic research, NUS has recognised the value of highly impactful applied research, which often involves collaboration with industry, in areas such as bio-informatics and IT. Many research teams are now working in inter-disciplinary clusters, including in the areas of bio-engineering, experimental economics and its application to social sciences and business disciplines, and wavelet technology. These have borne fruit and resulted in lifting the research profile of NUS on the international academic scene. For example, research in the theory of wavelets and its applications to industry is making an international name for NUS� Centre for Wavelets, Approximation and Information Processing.

As a national university, NUS plays a societal role of actively facilitating the transfer of knowledge to industry, thereby helping to create wealth. In this regard, NUS has been keenly promoting an enterprise culture on campus, in particular, in the setting up of NUS Enterprise. NUS Enterprise was launched a year ago to catalyse innovation and entrepreneurship in NUS. NUS Enterprise comprises units such as incubators, and the Centre for Entrepreneurship, and these facilitate value creation, new business ventures and the dissemination of new knowledge into the marketplace.

Another important move is the establishment of NUS� overseas colleges in entrepreneurial hubs around the world. The aim is to nurture dynamic and resourceful entrepreneurs by immersing select groups of students in vibrant entrepreneurial hubs which are anchored by strong academic institutions. NUS� first two overseas colleges are now located in the United States, one in the Silicon Valley in partnership with Stanford University, and the other in the Bio Valley around Philadelphia, in partnership with the University of Pennsylvania. This is an exciting initiative and NUS intends to add more overseas colleges in other countries to the list.

While NUS will continue to devote efforts to building up excellence in graduate education and research as well as fostering entrepreneurship and industry involvement, the delivery of quality undergraduate education remains the lynchpin of NUS� educational mission.

Since 1980, when the then University of Singapore merged with Nanyang University to form the National University of Singapore, NUS has graduated close to 120,000 trained professionals who have played a critical role in Singapore�s economic and social development. However, NUS has not rested on its laurels, and has initiated vital strategic innovations to further enhance undergraduate education and, at the same time, provide diversity to cater to the different needs of its students.

A key recent innovation is the General Education Requirement, which provides the foundation of a broad-based education for all undergraduates. Another is the University Scholars Programme (USP), which is designed for high achievers and aims to train the future leaders of Singapore by stretching high quality students within a broad-based curricular foundation. In catering to the very best, the USP goes the extra mile to challenge students� creative and critical faculties, to hone their intellectual and leadership qualities, and their capacity for innovation and entrepreneurship. An integral component of the University Scholars Programme is the opportunity for students to live in residential halls, including PGPR, and to learn and grow socially and emotionally, even as they are challenged academically and intellectually in the classrooms, laboratories and lecture halls.

Looking ahead, NUS aims to extend the opportunities for residential learning so that every undergraduate will have the opportunity to live on campus for at least one year. This will offer a more complete learning experience to more students. Residential learning will also help transform the largely commuter character of NUS to one where there is activity and vibrancy around the clock; fostering shared experiences to bond NUS students to the NUS community. This is critical for the building of a university community which shares a sense of identity, purpose and commitment, and in which students join with other university stakeholders - alumni, faculty and staff - to constitute the life force of NUS. PGPR is a significant step towards this vision.

Since its establishment twenty-two years ago, NUS has made commendable progress in its mission to be a world-class university delivering quality undergraduate and graduate education and undertaking impactful research which will strengthen and add growth to the Singapore economy. While much has been achieved, more challenges lie ahead. As we embark on this major exercise to remake Singapore, NUS must similarly remake itself and continue to conceptualise and launch bold new initiatives which will reinforce the position of NUS as the flagship campus of the university sector in Singapore.

I call on the whole university community, the faculty, the students and the Alumni to rally behind your President and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Shih Choon Fong, and contribute your ideas and suggestions to make NUS the premier university in the region and an institution which all Singaporeans can be proud of. In pursuing your efforts, we can assure you that the Government is committed to helping NUS realise its ambitions and will provide the necessary resources to ensure NUS� further growth and development.

On this note, I would like to extend my congratulations to NUS on the official opening of the Prince George�s Park Residences.

It is now my pleasure to declare open the Prince George�s Park Residences.

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