InterviewSingapore's NTU bets on global talent, agility to boost university competitiveness

SINGAPORE — Nanyang Technological University (NTU) has risen rapidly among the world's leading universities despite its relatively short history, driven by its ability to respond quickly to change and aggressively compete for skilled workers.

NTU President Ho Teck Hua attributed the university's agility in part to its relatively short, 35-year history, saying its startup-like culture has enabled it to respond quickly to technological shifts, including the rapid rise of artificial intelligence (AI).

“We are like a startup — only 35 years old — we are very agile and we move fast,” Ho said during a recent interview with The Korea Times. "To be successful, we need to be agile and make things happen fast."

After taking office as president in 2023, Ho oversaw the establishment of the College of Computing and Data Science, with the process completed in about six months.

“At a typical university, particularly an older university, it can take forever,” he said, adding that comparable institutional changes can take years to materialize.

Ho said NTU’s agility stems partly from a collaborative culture that encourages the university community to embrace change together.

“You have to bring the whole community along,” he said. “It cannot be that the boss moves fast and nobody follows. When you move fast, everybody embraces the change.”

That approach is also shaping NTU’s response to AI, with Ho emphasizing its potential to enhance productivity rather than replace people.

NTU plans to embed AI-related learning in 40 percent of courses across all 52 undergraduate degree programs by 2030, moving beyond standalone AI classes to integrate the technology into students’ respective fields. Students will also work with AI agents on project-based assignments aimed at solving real-world problems.

Ho said the goal is to produce graduates who are both experts in their disciplines and “orchestrators of AI agents,” capable of managing AI tools alongside their own expertise.

“It’s not about replacing people. It’s about making them more productive,” he said.

Ho said preparing students for a workplace increasingly shaped by AI requires more than simply teaching them how to use the technology. The ability to work effectively with AI agents, he said, is becoming an important professional skill.

“The job market requires students or employees to deal with agents on a regular basis,” he said, stressing the need for universities to equip graduates for the shift.

Competing aggressively for global experts

Alongside agility, attracting top global experts is another key pillar of NTU’s competitiveness. The university takes a proactive approach to recruiting leading academics and researchers from around the world.

"The only way we are as good as the people that we have," Ho said. "We are very hungry for top talent and we try very hard to get them."

Rather than waiting for candidates to apply, NTU actively seeks out promising researchers worldwide. Ho said university representatives have spent extended periods overseas meeting doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers and encouraging them to consider careers at NTU.

“Top talent has choices. They can go to many places,” Ho said. “If you are not proactive, they won’t come. We don’t just wait for applications — we solicit candidates.”

NTU has also sought to lower practical barriers for recruits, offering support that extends beyond research funding. Through its Nanyang assistant professorship scheme, promising young academics receive research funding, access to doctoral students and centralized facilities designed to help them begin their work quickly.

For highly sought-after candidates, the university is also prepared to tailor its support to individual circumstances. Ho cited cases in which NTU helped address housing commitments, children’s tuition and employment for spouses.

“We make exceptions because we really want to embrace our talent,” Ho said. “We don’t want these things to become barriers to coming here.”

The university’s efforts extend beyond recruitment to retaining employees, with young professors paired with mentors and given access to centralized research facilities and administrative support to help them establish their work quickly.

Turning research into real-world impact

Recruiting world-class researchers, however, is only part of the equation. NTU also places strong emphasis on building systematic pathways to translate their research into tangible economic and social impact.

“When we produce research, ultimately you want research translation — converting research into jobs and money,” Ho said.

Ho described research translation as a cycle in which investment in research generates ideas, intellectual property and publications that can ultimately be turned into new products, businesses, jobs and broader social benefits.

NTU has built several pathways to move research toward practical use, including corporate laboratories with major companies, licensing university-developed intellectual property to industry and supporting professors and doctoral graduates in turning their research into startups.

The university has also built a broader ecosystem to help move research from the laboratory to the marketplace, connecting researchers and startups with venture builders, venture capital firms and experienced mentors.

Beyond providing space for startups, NTU supports researchers through different stages of commercialization, including turning early-stage ideas into prototypes and bringing them before potential investors, with the aim of helping university-developed technologies grow into viable businesses.

Ho mentioned one NTU-linked company developing technology for electric vehicle charging as an example of that approach. The startup, he said, reached a valuation of roughly $300 million to $400 million within about two years.

Such commercialization, Ho said, reflects a broader role universities should play in translating research into practical solutions that create economic and social value, rather than allowing discoveries to remain within academia.

“It is no longer enough to simply produce graduates who go on to get better jobs and say we have done our job,” he said.

Ho said universities ultimately have two responsibilities: preparing graduates to thrive in a changing world and ensuring research delivers tangible benefits to society.

For NTU, that means continuing to adapt quickly while attracting the people who can drive that change.

“We move fast. We embrace talent,” he said.