Singapore Management University - History

History

The idea of setting up a third university in Singapore was first mooted by the Singapore government in 1997.

Ho Kwon Ping, a Singaporean business entrepreneur, was appointed to chair the SMU task force which determined that the new institution would follow the American university system featuring a more flexible broad-based education. Following a review of undergraduate business schools to serve as a model for SMU, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania emerged as the best candidate. The Wharton-SMU agreement was signed in February 1999 followed in June by the Wharton-SMU Research Center collaboration.

In July 1999, Professor Janice Bellace, then Deputy Dean of the Wharton School, commenced a two-year term as SMU's first president alongside founding Provost Dr Tan Chin Tiong. Dr Tony Tan, then Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore, remarked about the SMU-Wharton relationship: "We hope to be able to tap the expertise and support of Wharton's faculty and extensive alumni network of public and private sector leaders, while offering Wharton a 'beach-head in Asia'."

In 2000, SMU made its first home at the former Raffles College on Evans Road at the edge of the Hwa Chong Institution Campus. The campus, first opened in 1929, had already been home to several institutions, before SMU. In 2001, SMU upgraded and occupied the main campus facilities, balancing the need to refit and refurbish it with facilities while preserving the heritage of colonial architecture. From 2001-2004, Professor Ronald Frank served as SMU's second president and was succeeded by president Professor Howard Hunter.

After five years at Bukit Timah, during which time the University saw the formation of four schools, the library and three centres of excellence as well as the Commencement of the first SMU graduates, SMU moved to its new and permanent city campus in the Bugis-Bras Basah District.

Since then, SMU has expanded, with the establishment of a Law School in 2007 and the restructuring of the School of Economics and Social Sciences into two Schools, the School of Economics and the School of Social Sciences.

In 2010, Dr Yong Pung How and Professor Arnoud De Meyer officially took over duties from Dr Richard Hu Tsu Tau and Professor Howard Hunter as the Chancellor and the President of SMU respectively.