Singapore Institute of Technology's intake to rise to 3,500 over the next five years
Sandra Davie Senior Education Correspondent Straits Times 24 Aug 15;
The Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT), set up for polytechnic graduates, will become Singapore's university in the north-east and be integrated with the creative industry cluster that will rise up there.
SIT, which now runs its courses at its satellite campuses in the five polytechnics, will have a centralised campus in Punggol, announced Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong last night. Residents there will get to use SIT's facilities, including classrooms, workshops and a multi-purpose hall.
"We have Punggol 21 Plus. With SIT, it will be Punggol 21 A-Plus," he said, drawing laughter from the audience gathered at ITE College Central in Ang Mo Kio to listen to his National Day Rally address. Punggol 21 Plus refers to the plan to transform the former fishing village into a model town for 21st century living.
An artist's impression of the campus boulevard (above) at the Singapore Institute of Technology. Punggol residents will get to use its facilities, such as classrooms, workshops and a multi-purpose hall.PHOTO: SINGAPORE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Mr Lee also announced that SIT's yearly intake will rise to 3,500 over the next five years, up from this year's intake of 2,000 students in over 30 courses. This is in line with the Government's promise to enable 40 per cent of each age group to study for full-time degrees in the six local universities.
Mr Lee did not say when the Punggol campus will be ready, but said it will be linked by bridges to the creative industry cluster that will be built by developer JTC across the road.
"Students can easily go from classroom to workplace and apply what they learn, and companies can go to SIT to get help if they need some new idea or some problems solved," said Mr Lee, highlighting SIT's distinctive education model which integrates work with study.
SIT aims to nurture "best-in-class specialists" - graduates with deep knowledge and skills in a particular field - and requires students to spend eight months to a year on a work-study programme designed to be more in-depth and structured than traditional attachments.
Mr Lee said SIT's focus on applied learning is in line with the Government's SkillsFuture initiative to build deep skills and expertise in Singaporean workers.
He cited SIT graduate Chen Zhangkai, 27, who went from the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) to polytechnic and then SIT, as a prime example.
Earlier this year, the Government announced several schemes under the initiative, including the Earn and Learn Programme where ITE and polytechnic graduates can further their qualifications while working.
"SkillsFuture will produce more success stories like Zhangkai," said Mr Lee, but quoted a Chinese proverb to stress that it is a long-term endeavour. "We are planting for the long term, planting seeds now to bear fruit many years from now."
Two Punggol residents interviewed welcomed SIT's move there, saying higher education institutions are now mainly in the west.
The National University of Singapore, SIM University and Nanyang Technological University have their campuses in the western and north-western parts of the island; while SMU has a campus in Bras Basah. The Singapore University of Technology and Design opened its campus in Changi in May.
Said Mr S. Suppiah, 35, a manager, who lives in Punggol and has two children in primary school: "It is good that the Government is spreading the higher-education institutions around."
When contacted, SIT president Tan Thiam Soon said the university is extremely grateful for the land.
He said: "SIT's Punggol campus will be borderless and integrated with the surrounding community and industry, providing a vibrant learning environment which underpins the applied learning pedagogy that we are developing.
"We will work closely with all the relevant agencies as well as community groups to ensure that the campus becomes a beacon for industry, adding vibrancy to Punggol and turning it into a true university town."
NDR 2015: SIT to get a new centralised campus
The Singapore Institute of Technology's new centralised campus in Punggol will be integrated with a JTC-built creative industry cluster said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
Channel NewsAsia 23 Aug 15;
SINGAPORE: The Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) will get a new centralised campus located in Punggol, announced Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the National Day Rally on Sunday (Aug 23).
Currently, SIT - Singapore's fifth autonomous university which provides applied-learning pathways for students - has a main campus at Dover Road, with branch campuses in all the polytechnics. "We will bring all the branch campuses together," said Mr Lee.
Across the road from the new campus, JTC will build a creative industry cluster which SIT will be integrated with. Students will be able to "easily go from classroom to workplace and apply what they learn", said Mr Lee. At the same time companies can cross the road to approach SIT with any problems that need solving.
SIT will also be integrated into Punggol Downtown and HDB's upcoming Northshore District - the first new public housing estate to test-bed smart technologies. The community will share SIT's facilities, such as its classrooms, workshops and multi-purpose hall.
"So we have Punggol 21 plus, and with SIT it will now be Punggol 21 A-Plus!" Mr Lee said.
SIT was established in 2009. It awards its own degrees as well as degrees in collaboration with overseas partners such as the Culinary Institute of America and DigiPen Institute of Technology. It is expanding its intakes, to 2,000 students this year and 3,500 by 2020.
- CNA/yv
National Day Rally 2015: Singapore Institute of Technology's new central campus to be housed in Punggol
Lee Min Kok Straits Times 23 Aug 15;
SINGAPORE - The Singapore Institute of Technology's (SIT) new central campus will be located in Punggol, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced during his National Day Rally speech on Sunday.
SIT's campus will be integrated with a nearby creative industry cluster to be built by the JTC Corporation, along with Punggol Downtown and the Housing Development Board's upcoming Northshore District.
"So Punggol 21 Plus will now be Punggol 21 A-Plus!" said PM Lee, expanding on the vision of Punggol that he first unveiled in his 2007 rally speech.
The university's main campus at Dover Road - along with its five satellite campuses located in the various polytechnics - will be housed together in the new Punggol site, he added.
SIT, which was set up in 2009 with the aim to offer degree opportunities to polytechnic graduates, took in 2,000 students this year. It plans to expands its courses and have an annual intake of 3,500 by 2020.
This is in line with the Government's goal to enable 40 per cent of each age group to study for full-time degrees in the six local universities.
"Students can easily go from classroom to workplace and apply what they learn," said PM Lee. "The community will share SIT's facilities - classrooms, workshops and multi-purpose hall."
PM Lee also provided a sneak preview of how the new campus will look like, with the university campus connected to the JTC cluster by link bridges.
Mr Lee, who visited the SIT campus at Dover Road earlier this year, cited one its students, 27-year-old Chen Zhangkai, as a prime example of how SIT's focus on applied learning is in tune with the SkillsFuture initiative. The initiative aims to build deep skills and expertise in Singaporean workers.
Mr Chen took a less direct path than the average student - after his Primary School Leaving Examination, he ended up in the Normal (Technical) stream in Secondary School before moving to the Institute of Technical Education.
He then went to Nanyang Polytechnic before embarking on his SIT journey.
"Step by step, he perservered and overcame setbacks."
Mr Chen graduated from SIT last year. The director of an animation studio was so impressed with his final year project and portfolio that he offered him an internship.
He is now working as an animator.
Earlier in his speech, PM Lee also spoke of the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew's wish for Singapore to become a "rugged society".
He said it was key for the country's people to still be robust and tough, take hard knocks and strive to be better.
"But a rugged society doesn't mean every man for himself; we are strong even though we are small, because we are strong together," he said.
"The ethos of our society is clear. If you work hard, you should do well. And if you do well. we expect you to help others. And everyone has to work together so that we succeed as Team Singapore."
On the need to inculcate this value in the young, PM Lee explained why it was important to send them to Outward Bound Singapore (OBS) in Pulau Ubin and overseas expeditions for adventure learning and character education.
He recounted about his own OBS experience in Secondary 4, which left an indelible impression.
Nowadays, students have many more opportunities to go for adventure learning, here and abroad, he noted. Tanjong Katong Primary School, for instance, has a very successful programme - the Omega Challenge - which has been going on for seven years.
The most recent expedition to climb Mount Kinabalu ended in tragedy when the group was caught in an earthquake, resulting in the deaths of seven students, two teachers and a guide.
"We all mourned them, and grieved with their families. We held a National Day of Remembrance, and it will take us a long time to get over this tragedy.
"But we have to go on with adventure learning. Take necessary precautions, but keep on pushing our limits."
Locating SIT in Punggol 'a sensible move'
Danson Cheong Straits Times AsiaOne 27 Aug 15;
The Singapore Institute of Technology's centralised campus will be built on a site behind the Punggol Waterway. Experts say Punggol is a natural choice for the new campus as the estate is one of the few left in Singapore with enough space to accommodate it.
The move to site the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) in Punggol was a natural one, as the estate is one of the few left in Singapore with enough space to accommodate it, experts said.
They added that infrastructural developments in the pipeline will also be more than adequate to cater to the influx of students commuting in and out of the area when the campus is completed.
The decision to locate a centralised campus for SIT in Punggol was announced on Sunday by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in his National Day Rally speech.
PM Lee did not reveal when the campus will be ready or when construction will begin, but the Singapore University for Technology and Design's campus, which opened in May, took about four years to build.
Punggol residents will get to use SIT's facilities, including classrooms, workshops and a multi-purpose hall.
At the moment, the university is housed in a main campus in Dover Road and five satellite campuses across the island.
Experts told The Straits Times that locating the centralised campus in Punggol was a sensible move.
Transport expert Park Byung Joon noted that the campus will be quite big and it will be linked to a forthcoming creative industry cluster around it. "We need a huge space, and I think Punggol is the only space left for such a purpose," he said.
Addressing concerns about whether transport infrastructure will be equal to the task of moving thousands of students, Dr Park said that he is sure the Government will build new roads and provide more bus services.
There are plans to expand Punggol bus interchange, he noted.
National University of Singapore (NUS) transport researcher Lee Der Horng also pointed out that there are three unopened Punggol LRT stations - Samudera, Punggol Point and Teck Lee - located near the future SIT campus that are surrounded largely by dense vegetation.
Professor Lee added that he is glad the Government will provide other amenities in Punggol.
But NUS geographer Lily Kong said the influx of students will increase the pressure on other facilities. "There will also be spillover into the surrounding area beyond the campus itself, in terms of food and beverage and other retail, as well as recreational needs," she said.
Businesses and residents feel that SIT will invigorate the area, which is almost deserted during the day.
"On the weekdays right now, there is not much business," said Mr Ravi Anchan, general manager of Indian restaurant Curry Gardenn near Punggol Jetty.
Property agent Edwin Lim, 43, is looking forward to moving into a flat in Sumang Link, near the planned campus.
He remarked: "If my son wants to go to university, this will be very near for him."
Transport consultant Gopinath Menon added that the new campus is a chance to test bicycle-friendly infrastructure.
SIT president Tan Thiam Soon said that the "smart and green campus" will be consistent with Punggol becoming the first eco-town in Singapore.
He added that the campus would feature "tinker spaces and maker spaces" - where students and faculty can test new technologies alongside industry players.
"We will ensure that the relationship with industry is symbiotic, such that both students as well as the industries benefit," he said.
Second-year SIT engineering student Tengku Muhammad Khalaf, 26, will probably not get to study at the new campus, but he feels that the changes will greatly benefit his juniors.
"Right now, if we have laboratory sessions, we may have to go to another satellite campus. If everything is in one campus, it'll be a better university experience," he said.
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