Undergraduate Education

With Globalisation 4.0 in motion, the waves of connectivity and digital transformation that it rides on are set to revolutionise the way we do things.

From the Imperial Academy in ancient China that equipped the emperor with bureaucrats to Western Europe’s first university in Bologna, Italy, around 1,000 years later, the earliest universities had no need to move with the times. They were repositories of a largely unchanging body of knowledge centred on religion, spirituality and supporting the status quo.

In recent years, e-commerce, data analytics, artificiaI intelligence and machine learning have made the quantum leap from being mere buzzwords to real revenue-generating technologies: a fact borne out by a 2018 study by US management consultancy Bain & Co which found that digitalisation could grow the Asean gross domestic product by an estimated SGD 1 trillion by 2025.

Beyond infiltrating the business lexicon, the notion of sustainability is becoming a part of business strategy. After all, all signs are pointing towards a focus on sustainability in businesses: from government-led initiatives to create infrastructure that addresses the problems of climate change, to growing consumer demand for sustainable brands. It is becoming more important for organisations to embrace and promote sustainability on environmental, social and economic fronts as a long-term business game plan.

SMU President's Inaugural Address 2019 SMU has enhanced its undergraduate curriculum to nurture graduates who can deliver meaningful impact globally, and to ensure th