It announced this week that three Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) were signed between three Singapore universities and three Chinese universities. These MOUs established Sino-Singapore partnerships to pursue knowledge sharing and research collaboration.
The MOUs represent the continued cooperation in the field of education between the two countries, since the education ministries aligned in 1999.
“Since 1998, around 1,300 Government officials from China have come to NTU in Singapore for the “Mayors’ Class”, where former senior leaders from the Singapore Government share their experiences in tackling governance challenges such as economic development, transportation, the environment, social security and health care,” stated Mr Ong Ye Kung, Acting Minister For Education (Higher Education And Skills),
“Similarly, since 2010, the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at NUS, in collaboration with the NUS Business School, also began to host senior Chinese officials and business leaders for a 10-month Master in Public Administration and Management programme. The programme has since trained over 340 graduates.”
The MOUs recognise partnerships between Tsinghua University with National University of Singapore (NUS), Peking University with Nanyang Technological University (NTU), and Zhejiang University with Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD).
The RMB 150 million in funding to establish these ties were provided by the Ng Teng Fong Charitable Foundation.
“Under the new MOU, NUS and Tsinghua will conduct joint research and development in areas of mutual interest and complementary expertise. One such area is data science and data analytics. The universities will also work together to identify opportunities to commercialise technology,” stated Mr Ong Ye Kung, Acting Minister For Education (Higher Education And Skills).
NUS and Tsinghua University
NUS and Tsinghua University will focus their joint research in areas of mutual interest and expertise, including data science and data analytics.
“The universities will also work together to identify opportunities to commercialise technology,” Mr Ong Ye Kung added.
Also, the MOU acts to increase the student exchange and entrepreneurship opportunities. Undergraduate and postgraduate students will experience enhanced student exchange programmes and attend joint activities such as seminars and conferences, focusing on innovation and enterprise development.
NTU and Peking University
NTU and Peking University are going to establish a joint NTU-PKU Research Institute focused on areas including multi-modal big data analytics technologies for smart cities and human-centred technologies for healthy living and lifelong learning.
This new partnership will create opportunities for joint research, student and faculty exchanges, and joint activities.
The new NTU-PKU Research Institute will work closely with the several ongoing collaborations between the universities, including: the Research Centre of Excellence in Active Living for the Elderly (LILY), which develops digital solutions for the elderly, and the Rapid-Rich Object Search (ROSE) Lab, which aims to pioneer next-generation visual and object search technologies.
Mr Ong Ye Kung noted that the NTU-PKU Research Institute will be relevant to the Smart Nation vision of Singapore, through harnessing the capabilities of technology to improve the quality of living.
SUTD and Zhejiang University
SUTD and Zhejiang University are going to establish a SUTD-ZJU Innovation, Design and Entrepreneurship Alliance (IDEA).
This will focus primarily on design innovation in the two countries, and topics relating to manufacturing, urbanization, and sustainability.
The universities will harness their expertise to pursue joint research activities, aiming to translate them into commercial outcomes.
