Singapore’s Yale-NUS shutdown stirs student ire as college becomes ‘mere footnote’

With courses changed and faculty departing, students and ex-tutors lament the demise of the city state’s first liberal arts college

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Despite the college closing, there have been efforts to keep the spirit of Yale-NUS alive through an alumni network. Photo: AFP

Published: 2:46pm, 9 Jan 2025Updated: 6:31pm, 9 Jan 2025

When maths and law Yale-NUS student Ryan Tan got into Singapore’s first liberal arts college in 2021 he was thrilled to start classes, but his excitement was short-lived when the college announced soon after that it would close and he would be part of the final cohort to graduate this May.

Since then Yale-NUS College has seen an exodus of faculty and module lists have been curtailed, according to students who spoke to This Week in Asia.

They said their experience is at odds with promises from administrators that current students would still enjoy the “full Yale-NUS experience”. The education ministry and National University of Singapore (NUS) also said in 2021 that ensuring existing students would not be affected was a key priority.

“Most of what the NUS administration promised when the closure was announced, such as that the experience would be the same, did not transpire,” Tan said.

He added that it was difficult to make plans for the academic year because the course offerings kept changing each semester with professors leaving and modules dropped.

Tan plans to find alternatives for certain required courses for his major, look at summer school programmes and take an extra semester to fulfil the equivalent class quota at NUS.

Tan’s lament was a common refrain among final year students.