By Amelia Tan

SINGAPORE could be home to a unique trilateral partnership involving an American and a Chinese university, when the as yet unnamed fourth university starts enrolling students in 2011.

The Education Ministry (MOE) is already talking to various US universities about a partnership to run the new campus in Changi.

It is also considering involving a Chinese university, said Dr Tony Tan, chairman of the International Academic Advisory Panel (IAAP) and the Singapore National Research Foundation, yesterday.

If this comes to pass, he said, the university would be offering students 'a truly enriching learning experience that would equip them well to meet the complex demands of a globalised knowledge-based economy'.

Dr Tan, who was addressing a US-China-India conference on innovation in Boston, chairs the IAAP - a panel which is charting directions for Singapore's fourth university.

He pointed out two other 'path-breaking ideas' for the university - its emphasis on cross-disciplinary studies in design, engineering, architecture and business, and on working with industry.

The university will open in 2011 with 500 students and enrolment will grow steadily to 2,000 to 2,500 students per year, before hitting between 10,000 and 12,000 undergraduates eventually.

Yesterday, Dr Tan also disclosed that it was possible that the university, which will begin by offering both undergraduate and post-graduate programmes, could also be equipped with a major research centre.

Contacted yesterday, an MOE spokesman said: 'The proposed tripartite partnership for the new university with US and China universities would allow the new university to build linkages among growth regions and leverage on the different strengths of the partner universities to develop a world-class curriculum.

'Students of the new university would benefit from the best offerings of the East as well as the West, and experience a truly global education. It would give the new university a distinctive character.'

The spokesman declined to provide names of universities which have been approached as discussions are still ongoing. MOE will provide more information when the details are finalised.

Insead executive MBA programmes associate director Edward Buckingham called the fourth university's tripartite venture 'exciting and ambitious'.

'Governance makes three-way partnerships difficult to manage. Also, educational institutions, especially universities, are very complex organisations. But I think that Singapore has a good chance for a multicultural project of this nature,' he said. 'The confluence of cultures and influences here gives access to both the English and Mandarin speaking world.'

Mr Buckingham said tie-ups between Western and Chinese universities give students an understanding of Chinese culture, and networking opportunities help them gain entry to the booming Chinese economy.

The fourth university will not be the first to be founded on partnerships with foreign universities. In 2000, the Singapore Management University opened its doors based on curriculum and research developed with the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

This article was first published in The Straits Times on Dec 13, 2008.