SMU Board, Faculty and Staff, Students, and Guests
A very good afternoon to all of you.
1. Let me first start by congratulating you on the launch of your new College of Graduate Research Studies
- In many ways, this new College represents the culmination of SMU's efforts in building up its research capabilities.
- As a young and relatively smaller research-intensive university, SMU has been able to punch above its weight, and you have every reason to be proud of how far you have come.
SMU's Research Achievements
2. Indeed, SMU has done well in three areas:
- Impactful Research,
- Integrating Disciplines, and
- Igniting Ideas.
3. I believe the College of Graduate Research Studies will enable SMU to be even stronger in these aspects.
Impactful Research
4. Let me start with Impactful Research. To spotlight one such initiative:
- SMU's Centre for Research on Successful Ageing, or ROSA, runs the Singapore Life Panel, one of the largest high frequency longitudinal surveys in the world.
- The research team keeps in touch with 7,200 older adult Singaporeans on a monthly basis,
- To understand factors contributing to their social and emotional well-being, and amongst other things, their levels of retirement adequacy.
- The value of a high frequency longitudinal survey on a vulnerable segment of our population really came to the fore during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Due to its 'close to real-time' understanding of the respondents, the team at ROSA was able to surface timely insights to government agencies.
- These included information on how older Singaporeans were faring in terms of mental well-being, and their responsiveness to the Government's efforts in encouraging more to be vaccinated.
- This, in turn, allowed government agencies to keep a better pulse on the ground and calibrate interventions to be more effective.
5. I believe the College of Graduate Research Studies will continue to advance SMU's commitment to developing impactful research.
- The ethos of projects like ROSA, which seek to generate impact beyond the academic domain,
- Has always been part of SMU's underlying philosophy when it comes to research and education.
- I am therefore confident that, at this new College of Graduate Research Studies,
- Your students will also be encouraged to conduct and share insightful research work with policymakers, practitioners, and the public.
Integrating Disciplines
6. Apart from impactful research, SMU has also been good at Integrating Disciplines.
- These two points are closely related, because to conduct impactful research, you need to be able to integrate the strengths of different disciplines.
- This is increasingly a feature of effective problem-solving in a complex world.
7. Recently, SMU announced the formation of the College of Integrative Studies.
- The new College will provide students with the option to customise their majors, selecting from the full suite of courses on offer across SMU departments.
- Students will learn to connect ideas and perspectives and find new and innovative solutions to address industry or societal challenges.
8. In a similar vein, I believe the new College of Graduate Research Studies will equip our postgraduate students with these competencies, as the College taps on synergies across the SMU Schools to deliver quality interdisciplinary content.
- This will be done through programmes such as the new PhD in Law, Commerce and Technology, which is the first of its kind in the Asia-Pacific region.
- The interdisciplinary nature of this new PhD programme is reflective of how the legal services industry is undergoing major changes, in part driven by the pace of technological change.
- Students would not only learn about legal knowledge organization and computational law from the Yong Pung How School of Law,
- But will also be expected to take courses from other schools in topics ranging from corporate finance, to behavioural science and political economy.
- This puts these graduates in a strong position to pursue an academic career in law, with the potential to change the industry.
- They can also choose to apply their knowledge in policymaking, or join legal departments in financial institutions or tech companies.
9. Students can also look forward to a series of interdisciplinary courses that would provide exposure to a broad range of perspectives, and develop the confidence to tackle multi-faceted issues.
Igniting Ideas
10. Last but not least, SMU has done well in Igniting Ideas in your students, in line with your belief about making an impact on society.
11. For instance, SMU-X is a university-wide programme for students to take part in a project-based, experiential learning course.
- One such example would be the project 'Connecting Seniors with Volunteers for Ad-Hoc Tasks',
- Where students from the School of Computing and Information Systems worked with Woodlands Health Campus to care for seniors outside the hospital setting.
- The students developed an app that allowed seniors to connect with other members in the community,
- Who could help them with daily tasks, such as fixing electrical appliances, moving furniture or buying groceries.
- This solution combines social empathy with technological know-how to benefit the community.
12. My hope is that the College of Graduate Research Studies will similarly ignite such ideas in your students through their research work.
- As they go through their specialised training, I would encourage them to participate in industry-relevant projects,
- And hope that they will be guided by faculty members across the SMU Schools,
- So that they will gain all-rounded perspectives on the complex problems they aim to solve.
Concluding Remarks
13. Let me conclude by commending SMU on its achievements in research and education over the past 22 years.
- I look forward to the new College developing world-class thought leaders across disciplines,
- And bringing about significant impact to businesses, societies, and public institutions worldwide.
- Once again, my heartiest congratulations to SMU on the official launch of the College of Graduate Research Studies.
14. Thank you.