Making NTU Old

The Nanyang Chronicle kickstarts our new column “Conversations with…” where we feature prominent members of NTU and get them to share the very worldviews that make them brilliant. In our debut column, Opinions Editor Andrew Toh sits down with NTU President Bertil Andersson right after NTU’s rise to 7th place in Asia in the latest university rankings.

Photo: NTU Corp Comms

Growing up on a farm in his small hometown of Finspang, 200km south of Stockholm, Professor Andersson has certainly come a long way from his humble beginnings. While studying at Lund University and Umea University, the self-professed ‘black sheep’ of the family was often chided by his parents and relatives for being the only one in the family that went into academia.

Whereas everyone went straight into the workforce to find a stable job after graduating, he stayed in school to further his studies and go into research. But Prof Andersson surprised everyone when he started gaining international acclaim for his work on plant biochemistry.

“That was the first time my father realised that maybe I’ve done something for myself – when I started appearing on CNN, BBC and Swedish television, and when I gave the speech for the Nobel Prize winners,” he said.

“Otherwise he thought I should have come and work on the family farm with him,” he added.

During his term in office at NTU, the Swede, who continues to hold academic appointments as Professor of Biochemistry at Linkoping University and Adjunct Professor at Umea University, presides over NTU’s new medical school as well as an upcoming learning hub that will be completed in 2014.

The 64-year-old has also overseen the rise of NTU as one of the fastest-growing universities in the world. Under his watch, the university rose from 58th when he took office in 2011, to 41st in the 2013 Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University ranking released earlier this month.

NTU has also seen sterling results on the rankings for the fastest-growing universities in the world under 50-years-old. The university’s meteoric rise in the under-50 rankings has only been surpassed by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He predicts that within the next two years, NTU will take the lead in the rankings for the top universities in the world under 50.

–

NTU is now ranked 41st in the 2013 QS World University Rankings. How can we improve our rankings over the next few years?

I think we have already improved a lot. Of all the universities in the world, in the top 100, we have moved the fastest. I’m going to make NTU old. Because if you look at the universities that are in the top 20, they are over a hundred years old.

NUS is over a 100 years old. NTU is 22 years old. There are 20,000 universities in the world. So we are 41 out of 20,000. That’s not too bad. But I think simply by continuing what we’re doing now, and with the speed  at which we are progressing, we will make the top 40 in the coming years.

How do you think NTU has managed to move up the rankings so fast?

We have just introduced some of the best international practices at NTU – when it comes to promotion, tenure, education and research, collaboration with society, collaboration with industry and student life. If you look at the history of NTU, it did not work according to best international practices. It was basically a big university mainly educating engineers. We have also, in the last three to four years, developed a very winning model where we both reform education and improve our research.

In many areas we have more grants than NUS today although we are a newcomer. And we are also very strict in the promotions and tenure. One must also give some credit to the Singapore government which has put a lot of money into academia.

We’re facing stiff competition from NUS and SMU. How can we distinguish ourselves from them?

 We’re a rapidly developing university. NUS is ranked higher than us but they’re not moving. They are more of defending their title. But we are a fast moving university. We are the challenger that bites. We are also very strong in technology, but I would say technology interfaced with other disciplines –  the sciences, arts and the humanities. And now we also have the interface between technology and medicine. So I would also call NTU an interdisciplinary university, where we cross disciplinary borders.

We try to avoid being a silent university. I want the communication students to interact with medical students and engineering students, and have intellectual debate across the disciplines.

How do you create that space for them to interact?

We’ve been trying to build more coffee places, the international lounge and also the learning hub. I think the professors also have to take a lead and stimulate interaction. Many times, professors are also a little silent. That’s very important too. Because I don’t think the world of tomorrow will be for silent people.

Would you say education now is more stressful compared to your time?

It was quite stressful at that time as well, particularly for me as I didn’t come from an academic environment. I’ve had to study very hard. What I think is the difference between Singapore and Sweden is that in Sweden, it’s a more forgiving system: if you fail, you can repeat your exams several times.

This is something I’m discussing with the management now, and with the board, that we should introduce in NTU, where everyone should at least have a second chance. In life, you should have a second chance. And in studies, you should also have a second chance. And maybe if we give second chances, we will increase our ranking to the top 10.

Read the full interview in the print edition of The Chronicle.