National University of Singapore Plans a New College
Posted by R. J. O’Hara for the Collegiate Way
1 June 2002 (collegiateway.org) — The National University of Singapore is one of several Asian universities that have established residential colleges, and in connection with its new University Scholars Programme, NUS is planning an additional residential college. “Like other residential colleges at major international universities, the college would provide students with a fuller educational experience, with areas set aside for seminar rooms, a library, residences, informal meeting spaces, and a communal dining area.” The University Scholars Programme describes the plans further on its website:
The Prince George’s Park Residences: A Step Towards a Residential College
In keeping with the aims of the University Scholars Programme, we are moving towards the establishment of a residential college for the programme. Such a college would be a vibrant node in an intellectual network embracing both the university and larger national and international communities.
Like other residential colleges at major international universities, the college would provide students with a fuller educational experience, with areas set aside for seminar rooms, a library, residences, informal meeting spaces, and a communal dining area. Living in such a college would provide students with opportunities for informal learning and individual intellectual exchange outside the formal teaching environment. Even if the plans of the college do come to fruition, however, it will take several years to build.
As an interim measure, University Scholars Programme students will have the opportunity to stay in a cluster of three new blocks in Prince George’s Park hostel from the academic year 2001–2002 onwards. The Scholars Programme hostel will help foster a common identity among students in the programme, and promote creative sharing of knowledge and information. It will also be a platform for new forms of teaching and learning, offering, for instance, spaces for group project meetings to be held.
As members of the larger Prince George’s Park hostel community, Scholars Programme students will have many opportunities to interact with other students and share our vision. We hope that the development of a vibrant intellectual community at Prince George’s Park in preparation for a future residential college will fulfill our mission to act as a catalyst in NUS’s evolution into a magnet for intellectual and cultural development in Singapore in the 21st century.
Residential colleges at other Asian universities include St. John’s College at the University of Hong Kong, the colleges of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the colleges of Universiti Putra Malaysia, and the colleges of the University of Malaya.
