Speeches

I just came from the launch of our new Entrepreneurship Centre, at which we signed Memorandums of Understanding with SingCham (the Singapore Chamber of Commerce and Industry) in China, Spaze Ventures, a startup incubator, and with UPS (United Parcel Service), the world’s largest package delivery company.

The establishment of SUTD therefore marks a turning point in the development of the university landscape here, when we begin to have universities with distinctive offerings and niche strengths, presenting students with many more choices.

When I first joined SUTD as the founding Provost in 2010, our office was located on the 4th floor of the the Singapore Centre for Chinese Language located at Ghim Moh Road. We were truly a start-up university then.

I am very happy to join you here today at this beautiful campus to launch the SUTD Campus-in-Bloom. I am happy to be here both as the local Member of Parliament as well as the Mayor of the South East District.

Graduate education is different from all the previous stages of education. Primary through undergraduate education is about gaining knowledge, learning existing knowledge that is already known. Graduate school is where the discovery starts as one chooses a field to specialise in.

May I first offer my congratulations to all who are graduating today from this , the best emerging engineering school in the world according to a recent survey by MIT (the Massachusetts Institute of Technology), and to all the parents for whom this is also a very proud moment of accomplishment.

I congratulate all graduates, and your family and friends, who have supported you over the years, especially through your stint in university. Today marks the end of one phase of your life, and the start of another. In a sense, you have spent your whole life preparing for this moment.

My heartfelt congratulations to each of you and well done Class of 2018.

The last time I was last here was in 2015 to open SUTD. Now, three years later, I’m glad to be back to speak to the SUTD family at your first Ministerial Forum.