Nanyang Technological University

Nanyang Technological University (NTU) is a public research university in Singapore. Founded in 1981, it is also the second oldest autonomous university in the country.
The university is organised across numerous colleges and schools, including the College of Engineering, College of Science, Nanyang Business School, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, Graduate College, National Institute of Education, and S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. NTU is also home to several Research Centres of Excellence such as the Earth Observatory of Singapore and Singapore Centre on Environmental Life Sciences Engineering. NTU's main campus covers 200 hectares (490 acres) of land, making it the largest university campus in Singapore.
The primary campus grounds are located in the western part of Singapore, along 50 Nanyang Avenue. It also has two other campuses in Singapore's healthcare and start-up districts, Novena and one-north respectively. As a large, comprehensive, university, it has 37,458 enrolled students, and 7,997 faculty and staff as of 2024.
In 1955, prior to Singapore's independence from the British, Nanyang University was established south of the current Nanyang Technological University campus, with the centre of the present Yunnan Garden as its heart. Its administration building currently houses the Chinese Heritage Centre, a national monument.
Although NTU occupies the grounds of the former Nanyang University (NU), and has a similar name, it is not a direct continuation of that institution. In 1980, the Government of Singapore merged Nanyang University with the University of Singapore to form the present-day National University of Singapore (NUS). This was a source of significant discontent amongst NU students and alumni, because NU had been a Chinese-medium university, whereas the newly merged NUS was (and is) an English-medium university.
As NTU subsequently grew into a full university, various efforts were made to have it claim the Nanyang University mantle. In 1996, the alumni rolls of Nanyang University were transferred from NUS to NTU. In 1998, the prominent local calligrapher and poet Pan Shou, who had been the first vice-chancellor of Nanyang University, called for NTU to be renamed Nanyang University, as a way to "quieten the hearts of many" NU alumni. In 2003, this idea received further support from NTU president Su Guaning, during an interview with the Chinese-language paper Lianhe Zaobao. One reason offered for the renaming was that, by the mid-2000s, NTU no longer had a narrow focus on technical subjects, but had become a full university including studies in the humanities.
In 1980, Nanyang University merged with the University of Singapore to form the current National University of Singapore. Nanyang Technological Institute (NTI), a tertiary institution affiliated to the National University of Singapore, was formed to take over Nanyang University's campus in 1981.
Nanyang Technological Institute (NTI) was set up on 1 August 1981 with a charter to train three-quarters of Singapore's engineers. The first chairman was Michael Fam, and the first president was Cham Tao Soon. When NTI started in 1982, it had a total student population of 582 in three engineering disciplines – civil and structural, electrical and electronic, and mechanical and production engineering. By 1990, the institute's undergraduate student population had grown to 6,832. The first two graduate students were admitted in 1986.
Three engineering schools were added, and the School of Accountancy from the National University of Singapore was transferred to NTI in 1987. A school of applied science was also started. In 1990, the government announced that the Institute of Education would be merged with the College of Physical Education to form the National Institute of Education and that it would be part of the new NTU upon its establishment in 1991.
In 1991, NTI merged with the National Institute of Education (NIE) (founded in 1950) to form the Nanyang Technological University (NTU). The alumni roll of the former Nanyang University were transferred to NTU in 1996. Historically, Nanyang Technological University admitted students jointly with the affiliated National University of Singapore and charged the same fees. Students made only one application, and they would be accepted by either university. This arrangement ended in 2004 as both universities began to distinguish themselves with an end of its official affiliation. Currently, students apply separately to both universities. NTU became autonomous in 2006 and stands as one of the two largest public universities in Singapore today.
NTU is currently a collaborative member of Singapore International Graduate Award for PhD applicants worldwide, which comprises Agency for Science, Technology & Research (A*STAR), the Nanyang Technological University (NTU), the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD).
In 2013, there was a debate over academic freedom in Singapore when Cherian George, an outspoken academic at the Wee Kim Wee School of Communications and a government critic, did not get tenured. Although George had been recommended for tenure by the Wee Kim Wee School, his application was turned down by a university-level committee which included representatives from the Government of Singapore. Despite a petition against the tenure decision by students at the Wee Kim Wee School, George's appeal against the tenure decision was subsequently rejected by the university.
In 2021, some applications for on-campus hostel accommodations in NTU were rejected due to COVID-19 isolation protocols. The university claimed that the rejections were due to a shortage of housing facilities, which at full capacity was still unable to house every applicant, as rooms were oversubscribed. Such rejections resulted in concerns, especially among international students, as it resulted in many returning second-year students enrolled in for 2020 to 2021 not being granted campus accommodation despite the university's much-publicised policy of guaranteeing all incoming students with a minimum of two years of on-campus accommodation. NTU eventually reversed their decision on 2 July 2021, prioritising on-campus accommodations for international students that resided on campus at the time, students under scholarship programmes with guaranteed housing, and all Year 1 and 2 students under the guaranteed hall stay policy.
NTU has a diverse range of students and faculty stemming from distinct foreign nationalities. 65% of faculty and staff are foreign nationals, ranking it 3rd (tied with National University of Singapore) in terms of foreign representation among faculty across the top 100 universities according to QS. It remains one of the few top 100 universities with more than 60% of foreign faculty. Likewise, 31% or 8,089 of students are foreign nationals, with 58% them being post-graduate students.
On its foundation in July 1991, NTU adopted the Coat of Arms granted to NTI (by the College of Arms of the United Kingdom in November 1982) as its coat of arms.
The Coat of Arms consists of a heraldic shield divided into two sections: the lower portion shows a stalking lion facing the spectator on a white background and the upper portion two atomic symbols, one on either side of a cog-wheel above a battlement on a red background.
It is blazoned:
The lion represents close links between NTI and NUS, the battlement represents School of Civil and Structural Engineering, the atoms represents School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and the cogwheel represents School of Mechanical and Production Engineering.
NTU has been listed as one of the World's Most Beautiful Universities, featuring the ADM building in the report. It has also been listed in "The 10 most beautiful universities in East Asia", featuring the Learning Hub building. During NTI period between 1981 and 1982, the main campus layout including the building complex, the so-called North Spine, has been designed by Kenzō Tange, world-renowned Japanese architect and 1987 winner of the Pritzker Prize. The North Spine has been officially opened in 1986. The ADM building, featured in "Travel + Lesiure" report, has been designed by a young Singaporean architect Lee Cheng Wee. The Learning Hub building, also called the Hive, featured in "Times Higher Education" report, has been designed by a British designer Thomas Heatherwick.
The main campus of Nanyang Technological University is the 200-hectare (2.0 km; 0.77 sq mi) Yunnan Garden Campus (Chinese: 云南园) which is situated adjacent to the town of Jurong West. It is the largest university campus on the island of Singapore, housing Singapore's largest on-campus residence infrastructure including 23 halls of residence for undergraduates and two graduate halls.
The campus grounds were originally donated by the Singapore Hokkien Association to Nanyang University. In 1981, the Nanyang University grounds were granted to the Nanyang Technological Institute, a newly formed English-medium engineering college. With the formation of the NTU through NTI's merger with the National Institute of Education (NIE), the grounds were then presented to the university.
The former Nanyang University administration building was restored into the Chinese Heritage Centre and was gazetted as a national monument in 1998 – now overlooking the Yunnan Garden. As of 2019, the Yunnan Garden is undergoing major renovations that will be completed in 2021. However, some of it has been partially opened to the public in early 2020. The Nanyang University Memorial and original Nanyang University Arch were also declared national monuments of Singapore in 1998. The NTU Art & Heritage Museum is an approved public museum under the National Heritage Board's Approved Museum Scheme; benefactors who donate artworks and artefacts to NTU enjoy double tax deductions. There is a small lake between the Chinese Heritage Centre and Hall of Residence 4 called Nanyang Lake. Only members of NTU Anglers' Club permit holder, the fishing club at NTU, are allowed to fish in this lake.
The campus also served as the Youth Olympic Village for the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in 2010.
A third campus, Novena Campus, is situated close to LKCMedicine's partner teaching hospital, Tan Tock Seng Hospital in downtown Novena for medical teaching and research at the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine. The new 20-storey Clinical Sciences Building was completed in 2016. The CSB is home to LKCMedicine researchers, with the laboratories interconnected through collaborative spaces.
NTU has 23 Halls of Residence for undergraduates, each with a capacity of between 500 and 659 residents. They accommodate 14,000 local and international students, with every freshman guaranteed a hostel room. All halls are co-ed by floor or wing and offer single and double occupancy rooms. Double rooms are shared by residents of the same gender. Every hall has communal facilities like lounges, air-conditioned reading rooms, pantries and laundry rooms with washing machines and dryers. Presently, freshmen students will be guaranteed a room for two years.
Transportation to and around NTU is provided by means of campus shuttle buses. The Campus Loop Red and Blue services circle the campus, while the Campus Rider service connects the campus to the Pioneer MRT station.
NTU is organised into several colleges and schools, each corresponding to different fields of study. The founding colleges include the College of Engineering, Nanyang Business School, Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, and the National Institute of Education, which have been part of NTU since its inception in 1991. More recently, NTU has established additional schools for the Biological Sciences (2001), Humanities and Social Sciences (2004), Physical & Mathematical Sciences (2005), S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (2007), and Art, Design and Media (2009). In 2013, NTU and Imperial College London jointly established a new medical school, the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, on the Novena campus along 11 Mandalay Road. In October 2016, the university announced that Humanities and Social Sciences would be expanded into two separate schools, namely the School of Humanities and the School of Social Sciences.
Nanyang Business School (NBS) is the largest business school in Singapore with over 6,800 undergraduates and postgraduates. It is also the No.1 business school in Singapore and 3rd in the Asia-Pacific region according to the Financial Times. For 13 consecutive years since 2004, the Nanyang MBA has been ranked the best in Singapore according to The Economist. NBS has more than 160 professors from more than 20 countries, proficient in 30 languages holding doctorates from the most renowned universities in the world. This makes NBS one of the largest business schools in the world in terms of faculty strength.
NBS also houses the 165-square meter Centre for Applied Financial Education, the largest finance lab in Singapore. The new lab is equipped with 60 dedicated Thomson Reuters Eikon terminals with Datastream, along with 24 Bloomberg terminals that will allow business school students to access all kinds of real-time financial, economic and business news information.
HASS consists of four schools:
The College of Engineering is NTU's largest subdivision. It has been ranked among the world's top 5 schools of engineering and technology by QS World University Rankings, and claimed to be the world's largest engineering college, with a student population of more than 10,500 undergraduates and 3,500 graduates. It consists of six schools (Chemical and Biomedical, Civil and Environmental, Computer Science and Engineering, Electrical and Electronic, Materials Science and Engineering, Mechanical and Aerospace) focused on technology and innovation.
The college offers a rich array of multidisciplinary programmes and specialisations in traditional engineering disciplines and beyond. In addition to the 12 single degree programmes, the college also offers double degrees, double majors and integrated programmes as well as the only aerospace engineering programme in Singapore.
In February 2024, a restructuring occurred within the academic framework, resulting in the separation of the disciplines of Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Data Science, and Artificial Intelligence from the College of Engineering, establishing them as an autonomous college. This transition was marked by the introduction of new program offerings, including Applied Computing in Finance and Artificial Intelligence & Society.
Today, the college consists of three schools and is home to about 150 faculty members, 340 research staff, 110 administrative and technical staff, 4,000 undergraduate and 750 graduate students.
In 2010, NTU announced the formation of a pro-tem governing board to guide the establishment of the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, a collaboration with Imperial College London. The medical college was established in 2013. Prior to its opening in 2013, the school received record donations of S$400 million, including S$150 million from the Lee Foundation. The School's primary clinical partner is the National Healthcare Group.
NTU's Graduate College was formed on 1 August 2018 and is in charge of graduate programmes in NTU. One such graduate programme is the Interdisciplinary Graduate Programme (IGP), which leverages on professors from multiple schools or colleges in NTU to undertake interdisciplinary research and to act as advisors for IGP PhD students. Another graduate programme is the Industrial Postgraduate Programme (IPP), which leverages on partnering industry companies to undertake industrial research and to act as advisors for IPP PhD students.
The National Institute of Education (NIE), occupying 16 hectares (0.16 km; 40 acres) in the western part of NTU's Yunnan Garden campus, is Singapore's main teaching college and is run in close collaboration with Singapore's Ministry of Education. Full-time teachers in Singapore's public schools are required to complete a post-graduate diploma course at NIE, sponsored by Singapore's Ministry of Education. NIE is also internationally acclaimed and provides educational consultancy to countries from Indonesia to UAE.
The S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), named after Singapore's former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs, offers graduate programmes in international relations and is an autonomous graduate institution of NTU. The school has the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies—long recognised as a world authority on strategic studies and terrorism. RSIS was ranked second among university-affiliated think tanks in Asia in the 2011 Global Go-To Think Tank Rankings.
NTU hosts three Research Centres of Excellence (RCE).
Currently, there are more than 100 student organisations at NTU. These include Constituent Clubs, Non-Constituent Clubs, Academic Clubs, Cultural Activities Club, Welfare Service Club, Sports Club, and clubs for various religions and interests. Many students also take part in sports, recreational games and performing arts activities within the residential hall communities.
The NTU Students' Union (NTUSU) is the representative body for undergraduate students of NTU. It consists of 16 academic constituent clubs and 3 non-academic constituent clubs. The Union operates through two main bodies: the NTUSU Council, which drafts and oversees policies, and the executive committee, which plans and implements them.
The Graduate Students' Council is a council dedicated to enriching the lives of all graduate students at NTU. It consists of school-based Graduate Students' Clubs and the NTU Graduate Students' Association (NTUGSA), which serves as the elected representative body for the graduate student community at NTU.
Special Interest Clubs are clubs that cater to the diverse interests of the student population at NTU, allowing students to pursue their passions in arts, culture, sports, community engagement, religion, and other areas.
The Hall Councils are student-run organizations dedicated to advocating for the interests and welfare of hall residents. There are 23 Halls of Residence in NTU, each with its own council. Aside from key positions in the executive committee, students also take on roles in committees such as cultural activities, community service, freshman orientation, and sports events.
The Varsity Sports Association (VSA) is a student body consisting of athletes representing NTU in major university games. There are 58 student sports teams under the care of VSA, including Varsity Sports, Club Teams, and Varsity Developmental Teams.
Globally, NTU was ranked #15 in QS World University Rankings 2025, #30 in Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2025, #27 in USNWR 2024–2025 Best Global Universities Rankings, and #90 in ARWU 2024.
NTU was #45 worldwide in 2023 in terms of aggregate performance across THE, QS, and ARWU.
NTU is #1 in both the Times Higher Education Young University Rankings 2023 and the QS "Top 50 Under 50" 2021. NTU has been ranked as the world's #1 young university by QS since 2015.
QS World University Rankings by Subject (broad subject areas) 2024:
According to the Times Higher Education World University Rankings by Subjects (2024):
In the 2023 Global Ranking of Academic Subjects (GRAS) published by ShanghaiRanking:
Nanyang Technological University (NTU Singapore) has nurtured many alumni.
In 1991, Nanyang Technological Institute (NTI) merged with the National Institute of Education (NIE) to form Nanyang Technological University (NTU). The alumni rolls of the former Nanyang University were transferred to NTU in 1996. NTU became autonomous in 2006 and is today one of the two largest public universities in Singapore.