[20 August 2005]
Academic Year 2005 Welcomes SMU's Largest Intake of Students

Singapore Management University (SMU) welcomes its sixth batch of freshmen at its Convocation Ceremony today. SMU’s intake of 1,213 students is the university’s largest to date. The new batch of undergraduates will also be the first to spend the full four years of their university education at SMU’s new city campus. The students will pursue undergraduate degree programmes in business management, accountancy, economics, social sciences and information system management.

SMU’s holistic admissions criteria ensures a annual intake of freshmen who displays not only academic excellence but are also multi-talented with a wide range of skills, aptitude and leadership qualities. Many amongst the present intake are national sportsmen, accomplished musicians, young entrepreneurs and community service volunteers. The academic credentials of the students are also impressive, with 1 in 2 ‘A’ level students scoring ABB or above and 1 in 4 scoring AAA or above.

This year, SMU is also attracting its largest pool of 279 full-time international students which makes up 23% of the 2005 intake, an increase of 8% from last year. Close to 90% of these international students comes from India, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Myanmar and the Philippines. For the first time, SMU has also accepted full-time students from Korea, Nigeria, Zimbabwe and Norway. Singapore students will benefit from the richness of the international diversity and cultural vibrancy with the opportunity to study, network and socialize with overseas students from 22 countries. This is one of the hallmarks of the globalised education which SMU provides as a premier university with its strategic city campus.

The new $426 million, 4.5 hectares purpose-built city campus is a first in Singapore where, like major cities in the world, intellectual exchange is a seamless activity between the university, the nearby central business district and surrounding arts & heritage institutions. Students will enjoy state-of-the-art infrastructure and facilities tailored to SMU’s unique pedagogy of small class sizes, group discussions and participative learning. Ample open spaces create green lungs to revitalize and rejuvenate the corridors of knowledge while, at the same time, return the Bras Basah park to the public. The distinctive architecture of the city campus includes an underground concourse of retail shops, F&B outlets and student activity rooms that connects the four schools, library and the future MRT station.

Like the previous five years, all freshmen attended SMU’s unique orientation programme which takes the form of a four-day Leadership & Team-Building camp in July led by 130 senior student facilitators. The theme of this year’s camp focused on imbibing the freshmen with the SMU values known as ‘CIRCLE’ which stands for Commitment, Integrity, Responsibility, Collegiality, Leadership and Excellence.