[21 November 2005]
SMU's response to passing of corporatisation bills for NUS and NTU and amendments to SMU Act

“SMU welcomes the devolving of greater autonomy to our local universities through corporatisation. Established as an autonomous university from inception, SMU has benefited greatly from the empowerment that comes with autonomy. It has allowed us to deliver a premium education that differentiates ourselves in an increasingly competitive university landscape especially with top foreign universities. We have enjoyed the latitude to build our own distinctive character as a university offering a curriculum that comes with opportunities for global exposure, industry networking and an interactive pedagogy in small class sizes. Autonomy has empowered us to be nimble and respond swiftly whenever opportunities arise such as in recruiting top-of-the-line faculty to SMU and developing niche programmes to meet market demands. The rising number of oversubscriptions to SMU each year and our ability to attract a crop of top students for each intake is a stamp of confidence in SMU as a preferred institution. To have achieved this in a matter of five years shows a very successful experiment in university autonomy. In return, SMU acknowledges the need for a more robust accountability framework to assure the public that Government funding is well-utilised and properly directed toward the achievement of national objectives.”

Professor Howard Hunter
President, Singapore Management University