'Definitely didn’t see it coming': Yale-NUS and University Scholars Programme students, alumni react to news of merger

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SINGAPORE: Students from Yale-NUS College and the University Scholars Programme (USP) at the National University of Singapore (NUS) have said they are shocked and confused at the ne

Yale-NUS will close in 2025, ceasing Yale University’s collaboration with NUS, and its 2021 intake will be its last batch. The two programmes - Yale-NUS and USP - will be merged and will accept its first batch of students from 2022, NUS announced on Friday .

Speaking to CNA at the Yale-NUS campus, first-year student Jordan said students were only informed on Thursday that classes would be cancelled on Friday, without further details. “Coming back to my home country, getting to know my country, and having an international curriculum. The reputation of Yale also definitely attracted me. But now it’s like I’m going to a non-existent college," he said.

“Since developments are still ongoing, I am unsure of what exactly to expect in the new programme. However, I hope that it will bring about new opportunities and allow us access to more resources to facilitate our learning,” she said.After classes were cancelled and the townhall was announced, students were speculating about what the announcement would be, said a Year 3 USP student who only wanted to be known as Charlene.

Moving forward, she hopes for more sessions or townhalls between the NUS admin and affected students with more information about what will happen in the future. “Whatever we feel about certain things, we feel comfortable voicing it out. … And if we scale up, I'm not sure how much support there will be in the future. I’ve just had a good time in this school and thinking how it will change a bit sad,” she told CNA.

Freshmen at Yale-NUS were also reminded to pay their university fees just before the announcement on Friday, he noted. Noting that NUS had also previously announced that it would form a new College of Humanities and Sciences in September 2020, she added that this news now “makes a bit more sense”.The NUS College of Humanities and Sciences was set up in 2021 as part of a push towards broad-based and interdisciplinary education.

“Rather, graduates into the workforce will need breadth of knowledge, depth, as well as the ability to integrate multiple disciplines to solve complex problems.”“As an alumni, I don’t quite know yet how to process my relationship to an institution that will not exist in four years time.

Another Yale-NUS alumnus from the pioneer batch who only wanted to be known as Mel told CNA: “Honestly, it is a mixture of shock and disappointment. USP is a great programme with its own merits, but Yale-NUS was always framed to us as an autonomous institution from the start. Although she is glad that interdisciplinary education paths are “gaining traction”, she hopes that the spirit of “thinking with different hats, critical thought and bravery to explore new paths” will continue to be embraced in the new college.

“The decision to terminate USP by merger for reasons of 'scale' is therefore quite disappointing,” she added.USP alumni Chan Meiyi said she was quite surprised by the announcement as both institutions are quite young, noting that USP and Yale-NUS were set up in 2001 and 2011 respectively.

 

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