It may be small, but in the realms of higher education and research, Singapore is a big hitter. If you’re thinking about pursuing study in Singapore, read on to find out everything you need to know to get started on your Southeast Asian journey.
A whole series of global reports have recognized Singapore as a world leader in research and innovation over the past few decades. In recent years, it’s been ranked seventh in the 2014 INSEAD Global Innovation Index, third in IMD’s 2014 World Competitiveness Rankings and second in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report for 2014-15.
Within this context of global competitiveness and innovation, universities in Singapore are also gaining growing recognition, as Asian nations more generally strengthen their position in the global education market. Singapore’s two leading universities are now both ranked within the world’s top 15, and the city itself is ranked 15th in the QS Best Student Cities 2015, reflecting its combination of educational excellence, high quality of life, and diverse student community.
Universities in Singapore
There are 34 universities in Singapore, of which six are national. The two best known, the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) both feature very highly in the QS World University Rankings® 2015/16, offering courses in a wide range of subjects to their student populations of over 30,000 each.
National University of Singapore
Singapore’s global superstar, the National University of Singapore is currently ranked 12th in QS World
University Rankings, and first in the QS University Rankings: Asia 2015. Within the QS World University Rankings by Subject, NUS displays a breadth of high performance which can be rivalled by very few universities in the world. The school is now ranked third in the world for civil and structural engineering, and fourth in the World University Rankings by Faculty for engineering and technology. It’s also within the top 10 for natural sciences.
Nanyang Technological University
Singapore has more than one string to its bow, however, and the National University of Singapore is closely followed by Nanyang Technological University (NTU), which is ranked 13th in the world. Like NUS, it is highly regarded for its engineering courses, and is in the top 10 of the faculty rankings for engineering and technology, and the world rankings by subject for civil engineering. In recent developments, NTU enrolled the first batch of students at its new Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine in the summer of 2013, as part of a collaborative venture with the UK’s Imperial College London.
While too specialized to be featured in the overall QS World University Rankings, it does place within the global top 50 for accounting and finance, and the top 100 for social sciences and management.Singapore Management University
Offering a more specialized range of subjects, Singapore Management University is another of Singapore’s best known institutions, ranking among the world’s leading providers of education in the fields of accounting and finance, computer science, economics, law and statistics.Other international universities in Singapore
Singapore is also home to a selection of recently established collaborations, bringing together universities in Singapore with leading institutions around the world. One example is the Singapore University of Technology and Design, developed in partnership with the US’s Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and China’s Zhejiang University. Yale-NUS College is another international collaboration, launched in 2011 as the first liberal arts college in Singapore, as a partnership between the National University of Singapore and the US’s Yale University. These collaborations reflect a wider focus on internationalization and innovation among universities in Singapore, which is generating a growing selection of exciting options for prospective students.