Despite its tiny size, Singapore has two universities among the top 20 in the world. Among them is the National University of Singapore (NUS), considered the best in Asia, which offers a global approach to teaching and research with a focus on Asian perspectives and knowledge. Want to know more about this institution? Then continue with us!

Campus

The main campus of NUS is located in the southwest part of Singapore in an area of ​​150 hectares near the Kent Ridge mountain range, which lends its name to the campus. But the institution also has other campuses:

• On the Outram campus is located Duke-NUS Medical School, a postgraduate medical school created in conjunction with Duke University, United States
• On the Bukit Timah campus is the Faculty of Law and the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
• At University Town, an extension of the main campus, Yale-NUS College is located, a liberal arts college established in collaboration with Yale University; the Stephen Riady Center, an educational resource center and several residential buildings for undergraduate and graduate students at the institution.

Story

The National University of Singapore began its history in 1905 as a medical school with just 23 students. It was founded by a group of entrepreneurs led by Tan Jiak Kim, a wealthy merchant and philanthropist, with the aim of meeting the needs of the local community. Check below the most important events in the history of the institution:

• 1905: The School of Medicine of the Malaysian Federated States is established.
• 1913: The school was renamed King Edward VII Medical School, becoming the first institution of higher education in Singapore (which until a few years ago was a colony of the United Kingdom).
• 1921: The school has its status elevated to college, changing its name to King Edward VII College of Medicine.
• 1928: Raffles College is created with the aim of offering higher education in Arts and Sciences in Singapore.
• 1949: Raffles College merges with King Edward VII College of Medicine, forming the University of Malaysia, the first educational institution in this category in the territories of Singapore and the Federation of Malaysia.
• 1955: Nanyang University, the first Chinese-speaking university outside China , is founded.
• 1962: The Singapore campus of the University of Malaysia becomes an autonomous institution known as the University of Singapore.
• 1980: The National University of Singapore emerges from the merger of the University of Singapore with the University of Nanyang.
• 1981: The Nanyang Technological Institute (NTI), which until then was a tertiary institution associated with the National University of Singapore, takes over the former campus of Nanyang University.
• 1991: The Nanyang Technological Institute merges with the National Institute of Education (NIE) to form the Nanyang Technological University (NTU).
• 2006: NTU gains full autonomy and separates completely from the National University of Singapore.
• 2020: Today, NUS and NTU are the two best educational institutions in Singapore, respectively in first and second place.

Internal organization

The National University of Singapore is divided into 17 schools and colleges: Arts and Social Sciences; Business; Computing; Dentistry; Continuing Education; Design and Environment; Engineering; Engineering and Integrated Sciences; Music; Medicine; Sciences; Public policy; Public Health and Law; Duke-NUS Medical School; Yale-NUS College and the University Scholars Program (USP), an academic undergraduate program focused on strengthening academic and professional skills and aimed at students already allocated at the institution.

Rankings

In the ranking of QS World University Rankings, one of the most respected in the category, NSU occupies the first overall place in Asia and is in the 11th world position among the best universities in the world, just behind UCL, in the United Kingdom; and above Princeton, in the United States.

In the employability ranking, which assesses the reception of the labor market for students trained in specific universities, NSU is in 24th place, in front of institutions such as Duke University, Imperial College London, Delft University (Netherlands), Johns Hopkins University and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

With regard to the fields of education, the most prominent areas of the institution in the international rankings are: Petroleum Engineering; Chemical engineering; Civil and Structural Engineering; Geography; Engineering and Technology; Chemistry; Pharmacy and Pharmacology; Administration and Political Science; Statistics and Operational Research; Architecture; Communication and Media Studies; Computer and Information Sciences; Systems; Electrical and Electronic Engineering and Law.

Numbers

• Academic staff (staff and teachers): 2555 (2018 data)
• Students: 35908 – 27604 undergraduate and 8304 graduate (data from 2018)
• Annual budget: 4.39 billion Singaporean dollars (just over 15 billion reais)