SMU President Professor Arnoud De Meyer mentioned at the Academic Year Opening Ceremony yesterday the abundance of data and information, the imperative of sustainability, the rising demand for creative professionals in Asia, and the new globalisation as the drivers for change in education. He also highlighted the potential new trends that would shape the 21st-century university and how SMU is responding to these trends. Against this background, SMU aims to be a technology savvy, multidisciplinary playground where students become a partner in organising their own flexible learning path, where they learn in a physical and virtual community, where they enhance their skills to interact with AI and Machines. He said that University graduates from the 21st-century university will need to take responsibility for the development of a sustainable society. As such, the new SMU Pathfinders Programme, made possible by the $5 million gift from Mr Kuok Khoon Ean, Chairman of Kuok (Singapore) Limited, serves to provide a platform for student leaders to engage in deeper reflective enquiry and conversations that would help them synthesise and make sense of what they have learned from their various co-curricular experiences