14 January 2002

SPEECH BY RADM TEO CHEE HEAN, MINISTER FOR EDUCATION AND SECOND MINISTER FOR DEFENCE, AT DINNER OF THE SMA SYMPOSIUM ON MONDAY, 14 JAN 2002 AT 7.25 PM, SHANGRI-LA HOTEL

1. It is my pleasure to join you for dinner this evening at the end of the first day of the SMA Annual Symposium. I trust that you had a productive session today.

2. Twenty years ago in 1980 our university sector underwent a major restructuring, with the formation of the National University of Singapore from its predecessor institutions the University of Singapore and the Nanyang University. In 1991, some 10 years after that, the Nanyang Technological University came into being from the merger of the Nanyang Technological Institute and the Institute of Education. During this period the mission of our two universities was clear: to train the increasing numbers of professionals and managers that our rapidly growing economy required.

3. NUS and NTU have done well. The number of first year students who enrolled in NUS in 1980 was 3,400. In 2001, the intake of NUS and NTU had risen to 10,000, three times the intake in 1980.

4. The university sector in Singapore has undergone several exciting changes within the last few years.

5. The idea of setting up a third university was first announced in 1998 and saw fruition in 2000 when the Singapore Management University (SMU) admitted its first intake of students. Even before SMU has admitted its second intake, we have started to review the structure of the university sector and if we need a fourth university-level institution and the shape it should take.

6. At about the same time, top foreign universities like Johns Hopkins University, INSEAD, the University of Chicago, the Wharton School and of course the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have established their presence in Singapore, either in collaboration with Singapore universities, or on their own.

7. These changes mirror the changing roles of universities in Singapore. Singapore is rethinking its economic strategies, and the universities will need to play a key role in the transformation of the Singapore economy.

8. Since their inception, NUS and NTU have done well to produce competent manpower to support the growth of our economy. However, to become powerhouses for Singapore's economic growth, NUS and NTU must go beyond being merely transmitters of knowledge to become the twin engines of entrepreneurship and innovation. I am happy to note that the two universities have embarked on several initiatives to propel themselves in this direction.

9. Firstly, NUS and NTU have moved from being teaching-oriented institutions to research-oriented institutions - in other words, from knowledge dissemination to knowledge creation. NUS has continued its collaborative efforts with research institutes and research centres in the form of joint supervision of graduate students and the establishment of research laboratories. NUS has also begun to actively promote interdisciplinary research, seeking out symbiotic relations between different schools and faculties. NTU, too, has set up a Research Centre Co-ordinating Committee to promote inter-school research and provide a basis for networking. It has also continued to partner with research institutes on upstream research.

10. In terms of graduate students, we have seen a truly remarkable increase in numbers in the two universities. Between 1995 and 2000, the enrolment of full-time and part-time postgraduates doing coursework or research programmes increased from 5,124 to 12,190, a 138% increase. For the same period, the enrolment of full-time research students increased from 257 to 1,142, an increase of 344%.

11. At NUS, research output in both basic and translational research was high in both quality and quantity. NUS has also benefited from its close links with its affiliated national research institutes. Bonds between the two sectors intensified, bringing added vibrancy to the University's research scene. The Department of Mathematics signed an MOU with the Institute of High Performance Computing to establish a Centre for Industrial Mathematics. There was also a proliferation of new research facilities to intensify research excellence in niche areas. The facilities that started operations last year include a new marine facility on St John's Island that caters to wet and dry experimental research, making the Tropical Marine Science Institute the first fully integrated marine science institute in the tropics. The Research Centre for Nuclear Microscopy at NUS houses the world's most advanced high-energy proton microphobe facility.

12. At NTU, research programmes continue to grow in terms of volume, funding and quality. Last year, a total of 360 research projects were on progress, with a total project funding of $147 million dollars. These programmes resulted in over 3,800 research papers published in international and local journals and conferences. NTU also continued to have a thriving programme of research and consultancy projects and services for industry and external programmes. Last year, it had a total of 150 collaborative projects with industry and another 200 projects with other universities and research organisations were in progress, with a total funding of $20 million from external sources.

13. These initiatives by NUS and NTU show that they appreciate, and are progressing in their role as leaders in research, creating new knowledge and innovations which can be applied in industry as new products and services.

14. Secondly, NUS and NTU now enjoy more autonomy in financial and personnel matters than before, and are now changing those institutional practices adapted from civil service which are no longer relevant to their needs. The added autonomy will allow NUS and NTU to respond more quickly to changes in their operating environment.

15. Thirdly, in working towards the challenge of becoming world-class universities, NUS and NTU have also formed several collaborations with overseas reputable universities. The SMA is one of them. These collaborations serve the dual functions of increasing exchange of ideas between universities, and increasing the attractiveness of our universities to talented Singaporeans and foreign students. These two benefits are naturally synergistic.

16. The way ahead for our universities is to adopt a more international outlook, create an inter-continental web of ideas and relationships, and in the process, increase knowledge and idea creation.

17. The role of the Singapore-MIT Alliance is a unique one as it brings together many of the elements of these new initiatives in our university sector.

18. Firstly, in addition to performing the traditional university role of producing PhDs, the SMA runs a unique model of high-quality full-time professional Masters programmes that ensures its graduates stay relevant to industry and the economy. The SMA aims to foster a new generation of elite engineering leaders who combine academic excellence in the engineering sciences, with a broad understanding of the many facets of industry to create new ventures and innovate existing ones. Our ability to develop human capital which can provide the leadership for technological innovation will be the key determinant of whether Singapore can be successful in the new knowledge economy.

19. Secondly, the SMA has provided an opportunity for NUS and NTU to learn and improve institutional practices through Organisational Learning. As our local universities both started out as primarily teaching institutions and adopted many of their internal practices from the civil service, there may be scope to adopt and adapt MIT practices which encourage entrepreneurship and risk-taking, promote excellence, and recognise accomplishments. Good internal practices would accelerate NUS' and NTU's drive to become World-Class Universities.

20. Thirdly and most significantly, the SMA is testimony to the forward-looking vision of its partner universities. To-date, it is the largest interactive distance education collaboration in the world, involving about 50 professors from MIT and another 50 from Singapore in the teaching of courses and supervision of research. The SMA uses state-of-the-art synchronous and asynchronous facilities to achieve seamless interaction with MIT professors. I have had the pleasure of sitting in on some of the lectures. Just last month, I was present at a lecture by Dr Philip Sharp, the Director of the McGovern Institute for Brain Research, MIT on Gene Expression in Mammalian Cells: RNA Splicing and Silencing by siRNAs. The atmosphere was electric as scholars and students from across 15,000 km, and across twelve time zones came together as one community in search of knowledge.

21. The SMA technology has allowed MIT, NUS and NTU to embark on the future for education - a future where learning is unfettered by the barriers of distance. I am proud that our two universities are part of such a landmark model. Let me take this opportunity to commend all three partner universities for their daring challenge of old mindsets on distance education.

22. I am pleased to hear from all three university Presidents that MIT, NUS and NTU have already begun discussions on taking SMA to the next phase, which the universities have tentatively named "SMA-2". I understand that the partners are keen to continue to use SMA as a vehicle to increase collaboration, at both the institutional and individual levels, with one reinforcing the other. Their hope is that SMA-2 will be better than SMA, in terms of the depth and strength of collaboration and in terms of the support from the wider MIT, NUS and NTU communities, beyond those who are direct participants in SMA. Indeed, they are already exploring the creation of a dual Masters degree programme under SMA-2 under which students can earn two degrees, one from MIT and the other from NUS or NTU.

23. Beyond education and research, the SMA has also given Singapore the opportunity to learn and interact with MIT. I hope the SMA partnership will blossom into a long and fruitful relationship. Like a fusion reactor, SMA has brought together elements of different institutions, and generated an environment for interaction and collaboration. We look forward to the consequential explosion of new knowledge and innovation that would play no small part in propelling us forward into the future.