Singapore, 12 February 2019 (Tuesday) – Singapore Management University (SMU) today officially announced the appointment of its new Provost and Dean for the SMU School of Social Sciences (SOSS).  Provost-Designate Professor Timothy Clark will take office from 1 April 2019, while SMU SOSS Dean-Designate Professor Chandran Kukathas will join the University from 1 July 2019.

[Photo: Prof Timothy Clark will join SMU as Provost from 1 April 2019.]

Professor Timothy Clark is presently Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Social Sciences and Health) at Durham University where he is Head of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Health, which comprises 11 departments representing a broad range of disciplines. These include Sociology, Archaeology, Durham University Business School, the School of Government and International Affairs, Durham Law School, and Sport and Exercise Sciences.

[Photo: Prof Chandran Kukathas will head SMU's School of Social Sciences as Dean from 1 July 2019.]

Professor Chandran Kukathas is the Head, Department of Government at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He also serves as the Chair of Political Theory in the Department of Government and as Warden of High Holborn and Grosvenor House Halls of Residence at LSE. Prior to his appointment at LSE, he has taught at the University of New South Wales, Oxford University, Australian National University and the University of Utah.

At a press briefing held today, SMU President Professor Lily Kong, who took up her new appointment from 1 January 2019, also shared the strategic directions, goals and priorities for the University for the next few years.  Professor Kong, who is also Lee Kong Chian Chair Professor of Social Sciences, pointed out that in view of the current global environment which is influenced by mega trends including the rise of Asia, changes in demographics and the global economy, as well as technological advancement, the university of today has multiple roles to play.  These include preparing the workforce, serving as key drivers of innovation and national competitiveness through research, as well as contributing to the nurturing of better citizens and more resilient societies.

[Photo: Prof Lily Kong sharing her strategies with the press at a briefing held on 12 February 2019.]

Professor Kong, said, “In this respect, SMU seeks to influence and shape the next generation of leaders and entrepreneurs, while contributing, through research and knowledge production, to make meaningful impact on economy, society and polity.”

“Impact is about delivering a holistic and transformative education which then enables our students and graduates to make a meaningful impact on the world.  Impact is also about addressing societal challenges through research, and thereby improve our world.  SMU will strive to achieve this through four strategies emphasising Integration, Industry, Innovation and Internationalisation,” she added.

[Photo: The panel taking questions from the press at the briefing.]

The University will promote integration across multiple dimensions.  These include integrating across curriculum and co-curricular activities for undergraduates; integrating pre-employment training (PET) and continuing education and training (CET) to promote life-long learning; as well as further expanding integration across SMU Schools, and research Centres, Institutes and Labs (ICLs) to promote multi-disciplinary research and programmes.  Professor Kong highlighted that the University will ride on the momentum of its successful inter-disciplinary programmes launched in recent years, and suggested the possibility of allowing a select group of students to declare their ‘missions’ and devise their own integrated majors with faculty guidance.

In its pursuit of meaningful and impactful inter- and multi-disciplinary research, she also announced the five areas of societal challenges in which SMU will focus its research, namely: interpreting economies and financial markets; strengthening social fabric and quality of life; navigating boundaries and borders; managing for sustainability; and advancing innovation and technology.  To leverage maximum synergies among its existing ICLs, SMU will also look into further clustering them around cognate areas, with the aim to create meta-institutes, such as in A.I. and Data Analytics, and in Competition, Innovation and Transformations.

[Photo: Prof Lily Kong, who took up her new appointment from 1 January 2019, sharing with the SMU Community the strategic directions, goals and priorities for the University over the next few years.]

Professor Kong envisages that SMU will strengthen and deepen its partnerships with industry – private, public and NGO sectors – through education, research and outreach.  She iterated that the research partnership models can be varied and bespoke, and highlighted that it might even be conceivable to house some companies on SMU’s city campus to benefit the corporates, academia and students.  As Singapore’s only University in the city, SMU endeavours to have a reverberating voice in the community, to contribute thought leadership and ideas, as well as to be a place in the city where compelling and relevant ideas are being discussed and debated.  SMU City Dialogues is one such outreach platform which is being developed, where SMU aims to engage the broader community in discourse on topics that matter to the ‘city’, such as reducing inequality and remaking the economy.

SMU plans to step up efforts to cultivate innovation and entrepreneurship talent by scaling up its Global Innovation Immersion Programme as well as its support towards venture-backed start-ups.  It also aims to increase its ‘innovation density’ by positioning its city campus as a meeting point to connect like-minded people with different talents and ideas.  To facilitate this, the Tahir Foundation Connexion currently being built will include an ‘Innovation Bridge’ that features 500 sqm of incubation space for start-ups and will provide an environment that fosters innovation and entrepreneurship among SMU students and alumni, and with the larger community.

In the coming years, SMU’s internationalisation efforts will be focused on enlarging and enriching global education opportunities for its students and allowing them to be exposed to the entrepreneurial ecosystems in larger markets; as well as to forge more academic and research partnerships.  In particular, SMU is looking into establishing physical footprint in selected ASEAN cities, such as Bangkok, Manila, Ho Chi Minh City and Jakarta, in the form of Global Centres.  These Centres will serve to coordinate and strengthen the University’s activities and collaboration with various stakeholders across geographies.

[Photo: A 500-strong audience, comprising SMU staff, faculty, student leaders and alumni, attended the Inaugural Presidential Address held on 12 February 2019.]

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