Fallacies in Nanyang Technological University's History

Historical Fact

　　Nanyang University (NU) was merged away in 1980 and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) was formally established by an Act of Parliament on 1st July 1991. These historical facts were accepted by all walks of life from 1980 to 2004.

NTU 2004

　　Dr Su Guaning, in his speech, at the NTU Convocation on 12 July 2004: "Good morning and welcome to the 13th Convocation of the Nanyang Technological University"; "NTU has indeed come a long way since its establishment in 1991. From a student population of zero, we have grown to over 20,000. The first NTU undergraduate degree was awarded on 5 August 1992, and the first NTU PhD degree followed soon after in 1993." Evidently in 2004, Dr. Su has accurately accepted NTU as a young university started in 1991. But less than five months later, he decided to change NTU's starting year back to 1955. This sudden change to claiming that NTU is a 50-year-old university is a direct conflict to the 1991 Act of Parliament that established NTU.

　　Dr Su Guaning, in his speech, at the NTU Alumni Day on 27 November 2004: "Next year, the year 2005, will be the 50th year since the founding of Nanyang University, our predecessor institution that first planted the seeds of knowledge in Yunnan Garden"; "The University will be embarking on a year-long series of events to celebrate NTU's 50th Anniversary."

NTU 2005

　　Dr Su Guaning, in his speech, at the NTU Convocation on 11 July 2005: "Good morning and welcome to the 50th Anniversary Convocation of the Nanyang Technological University!"

　　Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, in his speech, at the NTU's 50th Anniversary celebration on 29 August 2005: "Nantah's source of students dried up, and standards fell. Eventually, Nantah had to be restructured. For a time there was a joint campus with the University of Singapore, after which in 1981 Nantah became the Nanyang Technological Institute (NTI), with the mission of providing quality practice-oriented engineering education."

NTU's Numerical Myth

　　Yunnangang campus nurtured a total of 35 batches (NU's 21 batches and NTU's 14 batches) of university graduates. There was no university degree conferred during the ten-year period from 1981 to 1991. NTU was established in 1991 and its first convocation was in 1992. But its 14th Convocation was renamed 50th Anniversary Convocation. These mismatched year counts are proof of disrespect and disregard for the historical fact "Two separate universities sharing the same campus at different time of 10 years apart".

　　NTU's numerical fallacy is artificial and inappropriate. It is impossible for such a colossal mistake to perpetuate over time. A more transparent next administration will definitely eradicate this discrepancy immediately. After all, it is impossible to fool all the people all the time.

NTU Keeping "T"

　　Dr Su Guaning, in his speech, at the NTU Convocation on 12 July 2004: "Once NTU has developed into a strong comprehensive university, with strong faculty and students across all its different schools, we will be in a better position to assess, together with the NTU alumni, if the University should be renamed."

　　Dr Su Guaning, in his speech, at the NTU Convocation on 24 July 2006: "Prime Minister Lee asked if we aspire to be Harvard or MIT. You will not be surprised that the answer is MIT. Among the three public universities in Singapore, we are the only science and technology university approximating MIT, whose excellence we want to emulate." Evidently, technology is becoming more important than ever in NTU.

May 8, 2007
(The author is a Nanyang University graduate in Mathematics, 1967, batch 8)