NYP lives up to its brand promise

Only 21 years old, Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) has trained, through its international arm, more than 13,000 government officials, CEOs and academic leaders from China alone.

Its presence on the world stage is just as impressive, with more than 900 courses conducted for participants from 70 countries including Mongolia, Bhutan, Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka and Thailand since 1993. This polytechnic from Singapore is in demand.

NYP's brand of education - where innovation and enterprise underline an industry-based pedagogy - sets it apart. With more than 190 patents filed to date, NYP ranks among the top 10 patent producers in Singapore.

Affirming its motto "The Innovative Polytechnic", NYP was recognised in 2009 with the Innovation Excellence Award, a major category in Singapore's annual Business Excellence Awards. NYP remains the only education institution bestowed with this honour.

For principal and CEO Chan Lee Mun, the award pays tribute to the dedication and commitment of NYP staff and students, and to the institution's core values. "Our brand promise is that we will nurture students into innovative and enterprising individuals, capable of succeeding anywhere," he says.

NYP's industry-relevant education and training equip students to become employment-ready upon graduation. The industry experience of NYP's lecturers from all seven schools and their efforts to stay ahead of the curve make this possible.

An example is the HK$24.9-million Games Resource Centre jointly set up with Sony Computer Entertainment Japan Asia in the School of Interactive & Digital Media. This led to NYP's appointment as manager of the Games Solution Centre, a national initiative to help grow Singapore's gaming sector.

The School of Chemical & Life Sciences hosts the school-based laboratory for Traditional Chinese Medicine. A project with the Eu Yan Sang group, the collaboration has yielded a patented purification process and commercialised red yeast rice extract.

Working with local and international partners, the School of Engineering has opened 30 specialist centres, including the NYP-Microsoft Entrepreneurship Centre for budding entrepreneurs and the NYP Centre for Digital and Precision Engineering, which is supported by the Singapore Economic Development Board. Such facilities keep students abreast of new and emerging technologies.

Similarly, the School of Information Technology's Centre for IT Innovation (CITI) trains students to create IT solutions for industry. CITI's Pocket OneMap became the top travel application in the Apple App Store in 2011, and won the Design of the Year award in Asia's Top 50 Apps.

In partnership with United States-based Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), the School of Health Sciences launched the NYP-HIMSS Centre of Excellence last year. Its innovations on the keeping of e-medical records and e-medication administration record systems ultimately benefit society.

By developing a network of strong connections with industry on local and international fronts, NYP gives students a taste of the workplace environment and places them in demand by employers even before graduation.

"Relevance to industry is the reason for our being," Chan says. "We will build on our established strengths by working more closely with industry. We will continue to make our graduates immediately productive employees."

With numerous accolades - including the Singapore Quality Award and People Excellence Award - the NYP brand is gaining traction overseas.

NYP's School of Business Management sends 60 per cent of its students on exchange programmes with 28 partner universities from as far away as Germany and Switzerland, and runs internships with industries based in the Americas, Australia and Asia. The School of Design also works with the Technological and Higher Education Institute of Hong Kong on similar exchanges.

Living up to its brand promise of innovation and enterprise, NYP constantly seeks to partner with best-in-class organisations.

"We have to remain nimble to respond to the economic transformation of Singapore and the world," Chan says. "We hope that our innovation and enterprise philosophy will inspire our graduates to excel in a knowledge-based, innovation-driven global economy, and help fulfil our vision of a premier polytechnic of global distinction."

Nanyang Polytechnic
Website: www.nyp.edu.sg