A new medical school training undergraduate doctors in Singapore and awarding joint Imperial College and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) degrees is to be established by 2013. The school will be an autonomous school of NTU and will be jointly managed by NTU and Imperial College. This will be the first time Imperial has developed and delivered a course overseas.
The new medical school will admit its first cohort of 50 students in 2013, the majority of whom will be Singaporean. Once the centre is fully operational, over 750 students will be enrolled in the five-year Imperial-NTU undergraduate medicine degree course, and approximately 150 new students will be admitted annually.
Few potential Singaporean medical students have the opportunity to study at Imperial or other UK medical schools, regardless of their academic ability, due to a cap of 7.5 per cent on international students attending the UK universities.
Keith O'Nions, Rector of Imperial College London, said, “We have many members of the Imperial family already in Singapore – the country is home to nearly 2,000 of our alumni. Over the years we’ve developed strong relationships in Singapore, working on collaborative projects with universities such as the National University of Singapore and NTU, as well as with research institutions overseen by A*STAR.”
“The partnership gives us the chance to work with Singapore’s talented students and also provides a rare opportunity to pioneer a new medical curriculum. Singapore’s healthcare system will face a range of challenges in the future and we aim to equip our students with the skills they will need to tackle them. I hope that this agreement will allow us to share new ideas and innovations for teaching medicine and will open the door to a range of collaborations across our disciplines.”
Su Guaning, President of NTU, said, “NTU is delighted to partner Imperial College London, one of the top five universities in the world, to set up the new joint medical school. As a leading science and technology university, NTU has extensive research in biomedical solutions and devices, health economics and pandemic alleviation. Our ideas for future healthcare systems and research into therapies and medical technology will put NTU at the forefront of innovation in medical solutions and healthcare systems. Combining NTU’s core strengths in engineering and business with Imperial’s world-renowned medical expertise, we are confident that the new medical school at NTU will become an outstanding reference point around the world.”
The new medical school will be funded by NTU, a publicly-funded university, and will be jointly managed by Imperial College and NTU. The school will have its own governing board with representatives from Imperial, NTU and other Singaporean stakeholders such as the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health, and the National Healthcare Group. The partnership agreement between Imperial College and NTU covers an initial term of 18 years.
The school’s founding Dean will be Stephen Smith, Principal of Imperial's Faculty of Medicine and Chief Executive of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. Martyn Partridge, who holds Imperial’s Chair in Respiratory Medicine, will be Senior Vice Dean and will work full-time on the project in both London and Singapore.
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