Provost's Welcome Message
On behalf of the National University of Singapore, I would like to welcome you to your first semester at the university. The NUS community is large, with more than 42,000 students and 6,700 faculty members and researchers in our 17 faculties and schools.
You are starting at NUS in the second year of a once-in-a-century public health crisis that is changing our lives and raising fundamental questions of how we relate and interact with one another. We are taking the lessons we have learned over the past year to not only address changes in education, but, importantly, look to the next few years and anticipate changes in employment so that we can prepare you for the global job market once you are ready to graduate. NUS aims to give you a strong cross-disciplinary education, to make you digitally knowledgeable, and to equip you with the range of skills needed to solve the complex problems confronting our communities, today, and in the future.
Once the new semester starts, you will be tap into the rich well of opportunities that NUS offers, including living in one of our halls and residential colleges, joining a co-curricular activity, taking an internship, studying abroad, or joining a work-study programme at one of our overseas colleges and entrepreneurial hubs located across Asia and the world. Most of all, you will make lifelong friends from among the NUS community.
One distinctive aspect of our curriculum is the General Education framework, which serves as a specially curated common university experience in which all students are exposed to fundamental approaches to knowledge. After that, you can choose from a variety of majors and minors, or double, joint, and concurrent degrees, some of which are offered in collaboration with overseas universities.
As a new student matriculating in Academic Year 2021/2022, you will begin your educational journey at NUS under a grade-free scheme. Take risks. Enrol in a class you never thought you would. Be bold, but remember to be kind, to yourself and to those around you.
At NUS, we also embrace lifelong learning. In 2018, we introduced the NUS Lifelong Learners (L3) programme, which allows you to return to the NUS community to continue learning for 20 years. What this means is that we will always be here for you, as you start your first year with us, grow in your career, and pursue different passions.
This is a period of great change and a time when we must recognise our social responsibility to one another. We have put in place a set of precautionary measures. Please adhere to them. You can go to emergency.nus.edu.sg for NUS circulars, FAQs, and emergency contact numbers relating to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Your educational journey at NUS has just begun. You will have many opportunities to become the person you want to be. I wish you every success.
Professor Ho Teck Hua
Senior Deputy President & Provost