SMU has expanded its overseas entrepreneurship programmes over the past two years, sending students to a wider list of countries. SMU’s Entrepreneurship Immersion Programme (EIP) added Jakarta and New York to its list of start-up hot spots that students visited this year, an expansion from two countries since its inception in 2015. Students can sign up for immersion trips to Belgium, Denmark’s Copenhagen, Switzerland, Jakarta and New York, spanning 10 to 12 weeks. It is hoping to expand EIP to China, Kuala Lumpur, and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. In SMU, students go through the Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (IIE) and selected students will work and study overseas on these heavily subsidised programmes, allowing them to gain on-the-job experience without putting their education on hold. SMU’s IIE Director Hau Koh Foo said, “Many of them tell us that the experience of living and working independently in a different culture is priceless." SMU is aiming to take in 40 to 50 EIP students per year in the future.

Among the SMU students who benefited from the EIP were Nicholas Han, who co-founded Schaffen Watches, which produces customised watches, upon his return from Rialto, Belgium and Mervin Ho Keng Mun who did a 10-week internship in Switzerland. During his overseas stint, Mr Ho had the opportunity to sit in on entrepreneurship lessons in one of Switzerland's universities - School of Management Fribourg - for about a week as well as intern a Tallysticks, a London-based supply chain financing start-up. He relished the idea of working with interns and colleagues from diverse countries like South Africa, Spain and Europe. Mr Ho felt that London opened a lot of doors for him and going there has reaffirmed that a wide and strong social capital is essential. Upon returning to Singapore, Mr Ho co-founded Haste, a mobile payment application for shoppers to skip queues in retail stores.