Nanyang University Teams Up With KAIST
By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter
Nanyang Technological University (NTU), a Singapore based university, has chosen Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) to be a bridgehead for its advancement into Korea.
The school president Su Guaning revealed his special interest in KAIST, NTU’s counterpart in Korea to The Korea Times.
``We do want to expand cooperation with Korean universities, starting with KAIST which we share much in common,’’ Guaning said.
NTU has played an important role in Singapore history as the driver of Singapore’s economic development by training engineers in large numbers.
It was established as the first and only privately funded university in 1955. Back then, it taught only in Chinese. However, it has successfully attracted many international students by now offering most of its lectures in English.
Now it is in the third stage of development as a broad based university focused on science and technology, participating in Singapore’s drive in research and development, the president said.
Singapore is no exception in terms of quality of education than other foreign countries seeing a large influx of Korean students, the president said.
Mentioning the trend, the president encouraged Korean students to come to the school.
``We welcome Korean students who are intelligent and diligent, and well prepared by the excellent Korean education system. Singapore is an ideal environment for Korean students to venture abroad, with a supportive Asian environment and English as the working language,’’ Guaning said. ``For Korean students who like science and engineering, there is no better place than NTU with a conducive residential campus environment and a strong, internationally focused engineering and science faculty.’’
Regarding world university rankings by magazines and education institutes, Guaning advised Korean universities not to see them as the main indicators of a university’s excellence.
``Overemphasis on rankings leads to dysfunctional behavior and loss of focus on what really matters _ educating graduates for success, leading the discoveries at the frontiers of knowledge, and contribution to the nation and to mankind,’’ Guaning said.
``In this context, we have been broadening our undergraduate education, emphasizing fundamentals that will serve our graduates well throughout their careers,’’ he added.
NTU is now recognized worldwide as the fourth largest engineering college in the world in publications, one of the top three business schools in Asia.
The president contributed its success to its encouragement of students to be involved in research earlier and become well acquainted with the frontiers of knowledge in areas such as environmental and water technology, nanotechnology, biomedical sciences and digital media and entertainment.
Lastly, the president expressed his philosophy of education that a university is not a place just to provide students with professional skills but to give them a well-rounded education.
``The general trend is for universities to move away from the `training’ paradigm to the `education’ paradigm, even for professional courses such as engineering and accounting,’’ Guaning said.
``Instead of just training the students to succeed in the first few years of their career, we educate them with broad fundamentals and foundations of learning for life-long careers,’’ he added.
• Nanyang Technological University (NTU) is a research-intensive university with globally acknowledged strengths in science and engineering.
• Nanyang University was the first Chinese-language university in Southeast Asia, and was established in 1955 through donations from people of all walks of life.
• In 1991 Nanyang Technological Institute with the absorption of the National Institute of Education becomes Nanyang Technological University, becoming part of the Nanyang University system. The university is an autonomous school.
• NTU features a Global Immersion Program where students can test themselves in research or entrepreneurship, undergoing stints of up to one year in the United States, China, India or Europe.
• NTU has established an international reputation and proven a worthy partner to more than 300 institutions in about 45 countries, including Stanford and Cornell universities.
• NTU boasts more than 19,100 undergraduates and about 8,600 graduate students taking a broad-based curriculum and working on specialized research projects.