Latest Press Releases > February 2006

01 February 2006

NUS COLLEGE IN BANGALORE – Giving aspiring entrepreneurs a head start in India, the next technology powerhouse in Asia
National University of Singapore to sign Memorandum of Understanding with Indian Institute of Science

The National University of Singapore (NUS) is pleased to announce the setting up of the NUS College in Bangalore, India, the fifth of the NUS overseas colleges. Following the success of the first four NUS overseas colleges, the NUS College in Bangalore opens up new opportunities for NUS students to work in Bangalore, the “IT Capital of India”, while taking classes at the prestigious Indian Institute of Science (IISc) for up to a year. This will be the first NUS overseas college for NUS graduate students.

The NUS–IISc agreement was formalised duing the visit of His Excellency Dr. Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam, President of the Republic of India, on Wednesday, 1 February 2006, at the NUS campus in Singapore. HE Dr. Kalam is on a two-day visit to Singapore from 1 to 2 February 2006. At NUS, HE Dr. Kalam will meet NUS students and staff for a dialogue session.

NUS President Professor Shih Choon Fong said “The NUS College in Bangalore, a partnership with the world renowned Indian Institute of Science (IISc), is our fifth worldwide and second in Asia. India is poised to emerge as the world’s IT powerhouse with abundant opportunities for economic and research collaborations. By immersing our students in India’s IT hotspot, we hope to nurture innovative technology leaders and entrepreneurs with strong cross-cultural awareness and understanding. The NUS-IISc partnership will bring Singapore and India closer, advancing our common interests in the field of higher education and research.”

Since 2001, NUS Colleges have been set up in Silicon Valley and Philadelphia in the United States, Shanghai in China and Stockholm in Sweden. The NUS Overseas Colleges (NOC) programme aims to cultivate dynamic and resourceful entrepreneurs by immersing selected NUS students in the entrepreneurial-academic environment of leading entrepreneurial hubs around the world. Students spend one year as interns at technology-based start-ups, and attend entrepreneurship and discipline-based courses at partner universities concurrently. The

NUS College in Bangalore is unique as it is the first NUS overseas college for graduate students. Previously only available to NUS undergraduates, the NUS Overseas Colleges programme will now offer opportunities for selected NUS graduate students to work in Bangalore, India’s Silicon Valley, and take courses from the prestigious IISc. IISc looks forward to strengthening its research collaboration with NUS in the future. Founded in 1909, the IISc is a premier centre of advanced education and research in science and engineering in India with more than 2,000 graduate students and 420 faculty members working in almost all frontier areas of science and technology. IISc is one of the oldest and finest centres of its kind in India, and the institution holds a very high international standing in the academic world.

NUS expects to send the first batch of graduate students to Bangalore by the end of this year. For a period of one year, students will work full-time as interns in start-up companies or technology-based companies, while taking part-time courses in IISc in the areas of science, technology and business.

Bangalore, capital of the Karnataka State of India, is one of the top technology cities in the world and home to over 1,000 software and hardware firms. The IT industry hires over 1 million people and continues to attract talent from all parts of India and investment from all over the world. Major international names in the IT sector that have invested in India include Dell, IBM, Intel, Sun, Oracle, Microsoft and HP. Together with home-grown IT giants Wipro and Infosys, Bangalore exports over US$5 biliion in IT and IT enabled services. The presence of many technology parks in the state, including Electronics City and International Technology Park Ltd (ITPL) has created an IT corridor that serves to encourage multi-national companies and start-up firms alike to set up shop in Bangalore.