The late Mr Foo Hee Lim's estate gift of S$1.77m to benefit NUS Business School

16 April 2009

The Estate of the late Mr Foo Hee Lim has pledged S$1.77million to the NUS Business School. The gift will provide financial assistance to academically strong, but financially needy Accountancy students of NUS Business School. A well-respected accountant who strongly believed in the importance of education, the late Mr Foo bequeathed a portion of his wealth to support deserving students so that they, too, can be groomed as professionals and in turn contribute to society.

NUS President Prof Tan Chorh Chuan said, "This gift will be instrumental in providing outstanding students with a transformational university experience at NUS. We are grateful to the family of the late Mr Foo Hee Lim for this gift as it will provide opportunities for deserving students to achieve beyond themselves - to be self-surpassing."

The gift will be used to set up the Foo Hee Lim Bursary and Foo Hee Lim Prize, to benefit NUS students in the Bachelor of Business Administration (Accountancy) programme. Beginning from Academic Year 2009/10, bursaries worth $6,800 each year will be awarded to deserving students to cover annual tuition fees and study-related expenses for three years, starting from their first year of study. The Foo Hee Him Prize will be given to the best graduating Bachelor of Business Administration (Accountancy) Honours Year student with outstanding academic results who will be pursuing the accountancy profession upon graduation. The prize, which consists of a cash award of $3,500 and a medal, will be awarded once a year.

Prof Bernard Yeung, Dean and Stephen Riady Distinguished Professor of NUS Business School, said, "We deeply appreciate this generous gift from the Estate of the late Mr Foo, especially in such times of economic downturn. Our School's goal is to provide our students with strong basic training and opportunities for them to become confident and enterprising business professionals who are socially responsible as well. This gift will further help us to attract and develop young promising individuals to become professionals in the field of accountancy."

The Estate of the late Mr Foo has also pledged an equal amount of S$1.77million to the Nanyang Technological University. The combined gift of S$3.5million will be matched dollar-for-dollar by the Singapore government, bringing the total funding to S$7million.