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] [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.[26] [27]
Singapore has six local publicly-funded autonomous universities and a publicly-funded private university.[28] [29] Dates starred with an asterisk are the earliest antecedent institution.
| University | Acronym | Type | Established | data-sort-type="number" | QS rank[30] | data-sort-type="number" | ARWU rank[31] | data-sort-type="number" | THE rank[32] | data-sort-type="number" | US News rank[33] | data-sort-type="number" | CWTS rank [34] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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.[35] 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. 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. | data-sort-type="number" | QS rank[36] | data-sort-type="number" | ARWU rank | data-sort-type="number" | Times rank | data-sort-type="number" | US News rank | data-sort-type="number" | CWTS rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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.[37] [38] [39] Dates starred with an asterisk are the earliest antecedent institution.
| Country | University | Abbrev. | Partner | Estab. | data-sort-type="number" | QS rank[40] | data-sort-type="number" | ARWU rank | data-sort-type="number" | Times rank | data-sort-type="number" | US News rank | data-sort-type="number" | CWTS rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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.[41] [42]
| 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.[43] [6]