Founded in 1958, Raffles Hall was one of the first halls to be established in the National University of Singapore (NUS).
Raffles Hall was originally located in Nassim Road, Bukit Timah, alongside Eusoff College. At that time, Raffles Hall was an all-boys hall. Due to an increase in the number of female students, Raffles Hall officially became co-ed in 1975.
In 1981, NUS shifted from the Bukit Timah campus to the current Kent Ridge campus. The establishment of two new halls there took a toll on Raffles Hall’s residential numbers. Consequently, Raffles Hall bade farewell to Nassim Road and moved to the Kent Ridge Campus in 1984. The new Raffles Hall site was almost twice the size of the old Nassim Road site.
Raffles Hall has its roots in Raffles College, which was one of the institutes of higher learning that merged to eventually form the National University of Singapore (the other being King Edward VII college). Raffles Hall was also modelled after the colleges at Oxford and Cambridge, and hence many of their traditions trickled down to us. The positions of the Master, Resident Fellows, Junior Common Room Committees (JCRCs) and Senior Common Room Committees (SCRCs) all stemmed from those origins. And although “Raffles” is a common name for many institutions and organisations in Singapore, Raffles Hall is in no way affiliated to them.
