This is a list of universities in Singapore.
The oldest university in Singapore is the National University of Singapore, which was established in its current form in 1980, but has a history in tertiary education dating back to 1905. [1] The university along with the Nanyang Technological University are research intensive and rank the highest in global university ranking publications. [2] [3] Newer universities have been established by the Singaporean Government since 2000 that specialise in various sectors and in applied learning. [4] Singapore also has partnered and directly-operated campuses from foreign universities and other private institutions offering external degree programs from overseas institutions. [5] [6]
The university rankings included below are for reference only. Different university ranking publications use varying methodologies to rank universities [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] and cannot accurately calculate teaching performance, research quality and other abstract functions into a singular numerical composite. [13] University ranking methodologies have been criticised [14] [15] [16] for their subjectivity, bias and lack of consideration for institutional specialisations. [17] [18] [19] Institutional competitiveness reinforced by ranking publication results also discourages inter-institutional academic co-operation, non-anglophone thought and have been described a modern form of colonialism. [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [19] The pursuit for higher rankings has also caused many universities globally to prioritise staff for research output over teaching skills and cause stress to high school students. [27] [28]
Singapore has six local publicly-funded autonomous universities and a publicly-funded private university. [29] [30] Dates starred with an asterisk are the earliest antecedent institution.
University | Acronym | Type | Established | QS rank [31] | ARWU rank [32] | THE rank [33] |
US News rank [34] |
CWTS rank [35] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
National University of Singapore | NUS | Public research intensive autonomous university | 1905* | 8 | 71 | 19 | 22 | 38 |
Nanyang Technological University | NTU | Public research intensive autonomous university | 1981* | 15 | 93 | 32 | 27 | 86 |
Singapore Management University | SMU | Public specialised research intensive autonomous university | 2000 | 585 | N/A | N/A | 577 | N/A |
Singapore University of Social Sciences | SUSS | Public autonomous university of applied learning | 2005* | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Singapore Institute of Technology | SIT | Public autonomous university of applied learning | 2009 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Singapore University of Technology and Design | SUTD | Public specialised research intensive autonomous university | 2009 | 440 | 901-1000 | N/A | 355 | 1177 |
University of the Arts Singapore | UAS | Publicly-funded private collegiate university of the arts | 2023 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
University | Type | Established | Defunct | Comments |
---|---|---|---|---|
Nanyang University | Private university | 1956 | 1980 | Defunct following merger with University of Singapore to form NUS |
SIM University | Private university | 2005 | 2017 | Defunct following restructuring to form SUSS |
Foreign institutions are regulated by the Committee for Private Education (CPE). There are various accreditation and rating processes in Singapore including the EduTrust Certification Scheme. [36] Below is an incomplete list of institutions of higher learning that offer undergraduate and/or graduate programmes in Singapore.
The following private education institutions are local branches of foreign universities. [37] Institutions are listed alphabetically in the order of country of origin and dates starred with an asterisk are the earliest antecedent institution.
Country | University | Type | Type | Estab. | QS rank [38] | ARWU rank [32] | Times rank [33] |
US News rank [34] |
CWTS rank [35] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Australia | Curtin University | Comprehensive | Private campus of public university | 1900* | 174 | 201-300 | 201–250 | 160 | 310 |
Australia | James Cook University | Comprehensive | Private campus of public university | 1961* | 445 | 301-400 | 351–400 | 324 | 698 |
Australia | The University of Newcastle | Postgraduate | Private subsidiary of public university | 1951* | 179 | 401-500 | 201-250 | 231 | 388 |
France | Paris-Panthéon-Assas University | Specialised | Private law school of non-profit university | 1100* | 851-900 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
The following education institutions are operated under a partnership with local universities. Institutions are listed alphabetically in the order of country of origin. [39] [40] [41] Dates starred with an asterisk are the earliest antecedent institution.
Country | University | Abbrev. | Partner | Estab. | QS rank [42] | ARWU rank [32] | Times rank [33] |
US News rank [34] |
CWTS rank [35] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Germany | Technical University of Munich | TUM Asia | Singapore Institute of Technology | 1868* | 28 | 59 | 30 | 79 | 102 |
Switzerland | Singapore-ETH Centre | SEC | Singapore National Research Foundation | 1855 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
United Kingdom | Newcastle University | NUiS | Singapore Institute of Technology | 1834* | 129 | 201-300 | 168 | 156 | 292 |
United Kingdom | University of Glasgow | UGS | Singapore Institute of Technology | 1451 | 78 | 101-150 | 87 | 74 | 263 |
United States | DigiPen Institute of Technology | DigiPen | Singapore Institute of Technology | 1988 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
United States | Duke-NUS Medical School | Duke-NUS | National University of Singapore | 2005 | N/A | 501-600 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
United States | The Culinary Institute of America | CIA | Singapore Institute of Technology | 1954 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
United States | Yale-NUS College (closing 2025) | Yale-NUS | National University of Singapore | 2011 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
This is a list of some non-local business schools and other institutions operating in Singapore. [43] [44]
Country | University | Abbreviation | Type | Established |
---|---|---|---|---|
Switzerland | St. Gallen Institute of Management in Asia ( University of St. Gallen) | SGI-HSG | Public research intensive autonomous university | 1898 |
France | ESSEC Business School | ESSEC | Private non-profit business school | 1907 |
France | INSEAD Asia Campus | INSEAD | Private non-profit business school | 1957 |
India | S P Jain School of Global Management | SPJAIN | Private business school | 2004 |
Switzerland | EHL Hospitality Business School | EHL | Private non-profit hospitality school | 1893 |
The following private education institutions offer external degree programmes (EDPs) with undergraduate and postgraduate degrees conferred by the institutions' partner universities. [37] [6]