When it first opened here in 2011, the Yale-NUS College caused quite a stir.
A collaboration between Yale and the National University of Singapore (NUS), it was the first-ever liberal arts college in Singapore, which Minister of Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen found “highly intriguing” at the time.
“The melding of ways of thinking, of approaches to problems, governance and life in general from perspectives of East and West may throw up new solutions to the issues that confront society today,” he said when it was launched on 11 April that year.
There was also some controversy around the new educational institution, with some Yale professors passing a resolution the following year expressing concern over Singapore’s “lack of respect for civil and political rights”.
Nevertheless, Yale and NUS would continue with their partnership for the next ten years, attracting students from all over the world.
Now, it seems that Yale-NUS is in for yet another merger.
Yale-NUS College Will Stop Accepting New Students to Make Way for a New College
Yale-NUS College will stop accepting new students as it’ll merge with another department at NUS to form a new college.
This means that the 240 freshmen who enrolled at Yale-NUS earlier this month will be the college’s final cohort. They will graduate in 2025.
Until then, Yale-NUS will continue to run its academic, co-curricular, and research programmes.
A New College
Yale-NUS will be merged with NUS’s University Scholars Programme (USP), an interdisciplinary programme which began in 2001.
The initiative takes in 240 undergraduates from across seven faculties and schools in NUS every year, while Yale-NUS admits 250 students annually.
The new college will also have a new name, of course – “New College”.
Yes, it’s not exactly the most creative name, but it’s just a provisional title.
New College will welcome its first intake of up to 500 students in the academic year 2022/23.
According to Yale News, the objective of this merger is to grant more Singaporean students access to an immersive, interdisciplinary liberal arts education.
It will feature a broad-based common curriculum which will be a blend of the USP and Yale-NUS foundations.
Students will be taught in small groups and get residential experience as well.
With the formation of New College, Yale-NUS will cease in 2025. NUS did not explain why it isn’t renewing its affiliation agreement with Yale.
Two NUS Faculties Merging
Two faculties in NUS will be merging as well, namely the Faculty of Engineering and the School of Design and Environment.
Together, it will form the new College of Design and Engineering.
Set to launch officially in November this year, the new faculty will offer a “new model of interdisciplinary education that leverages the synergy between the two converging fields,” NUS said.
It has 11 departments, and students from the Faculty of Engineering and the School of Design and Environment can take courses from both schools.
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