SMU will invest $20 million to redevelop its campus to provide more teaching and learning spaces for its staff and students, as well as to add more green spaces and buzz to the civic district. The redevelopment will last for two years and include more classrooms and conference rooms, as well as an open-air amphitheatre between the Singapore Art Museum and the National Museum of Singapore. SMU President Professor Arnoud De Meyer said that the University's campus plan, drawn up 15 years ago, had aimed to cater to 6,000 students, but the number had since increased to 8,800. As such, the redevelopment will help to ease space woes and strengthen the connections between SMU and its surrounding communities. It is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2017.