Undergraduate Education

In recent years, diversity, equity and inclusivity (DEI) have become more than mere buzzwords in business organisations. Instead, effective DEI initiatives have grown to serve as critical drivers for organisational success. In particular, the events of 2020 have propelled DEI issues to the forefront, with impactful social movements and effects of the pandemic resulting in greater proactivity in achieving true diversity and inclusion.

Last year, a group of SMU students and alumni started a ground-up initiative, the COVID-19 Taskforce for Non-Profits (now known as Thrive Social Consulting), to help future-proof non-profit organisations (NPOs) in Singapore.

Safety, social responsibility and adaptability — these are the key goals that Singapore is keeping front and centre as the coronavirus pandemic evolves, and SMU is doing its part too as we continue our efforts to prioritise the health of our students, faculty, staff and partners while fulfilling our mission as a university.

SMU is recognised twice for its groundbreaking business education, at the annual Reimagine Education Awards & Conference. Imagine guest speakers from halfway across the world delivering a classroom address – via a holographic avatar; or students taking in a lecture right at their desks during lunch – instead of fighting rush hour traffic to get to night classes every other day of the week.

For the first TY Lee Mindfulness Distinguished Lecture Series 2019, distinguished psychologist Dr Steven Hickman explored the value and practice of mindfulness and how it can help to shape a happier future. With rapid technological advancement and socio-political turmoil roiling the world today, it’s not surprising that a pervasive sense of isolation is on the rise. That probably explains why mindfulness has become the subject of increasing attention in recent years.

In July 2019, some 200 students, representing 30 nationalities and 70 universities convened in SMU’s city campus for the annual Global Summer Programme (GSP). Accepting its largest intake since its launch five years ago, GSP comprised 10 credit-bearing courses that drew upon the expertise of faculty from across SMU’s six schools.

Assistant Professor Yasmin Ortiga of the SMU School of Social Sciences was recently awarded the National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship 2019 for her research on higher education in the Philippines.

Tan Kar Way, the winner of the 2019 Innovative Teacher Award, spent years refining her teaching methodology. She explains the experiences and goals that shaped her meticulous approach.

Undergraduates in Singapore and China spent the summer learning about each other’s homeland Youths with cross-cultural experiences are able to build better rapport with people from different backgrounds. That was part of the thinking behind the Sino-Singapore Undergraduate Exchange (SSUE), a cultural exchange programme initiated in 2002 by ESM Goh Chok Tong (then-Singapore’s Prime Minister) and Mr Hu Jintao (then-Vice President of the People’s Republic of China).

From August 2019, students in all six SMU schools can prepare for the world of big data by taking up this second major The only constant is change — this adage has never been more apt, with traditional industries now being upended by technology all over the world. A new generation increasingly finds themselves in jobs that didn’t exist just a few years ago, and what careers of the future will look like is anyone’s guess.