Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) and Trinity College Dublin (TCD) agreement: Speech at Signing Ceremony
Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP), Singapore
Monday, 29 October 2012
Minister for Health of Singapore, Mr Gan Kim Yong; Ambassador Hayes; President of SIT, Professor Tan Chin Tiong; Principal of NYP, Mr Chan Lee Mun, distinguished guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, good afternoon.
I’m delighted to be here on this historic day marking the new collaboration between Trinity College Dublin and Singapore Institute of Technology.
Today we commence our partnership with the launch of two programmes in Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy, with recognition of the three-year diplomas in these disciplines from Nanyang Polytechnic.
TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN AND THE GLOBAL RELATIONS STRATEGY
Trinity College Dublin is one of the oldest universities in the world; founded exactly 420 years ago this year, it is Ireland’s highest ranked university. Trinity is a multi-disciplinary university with faculties of Medicine, Law, Engineering, Humanities, Science, Social Sciences, and others. We are Ireland’s highest ranking university and ranked 19th in Europe, and in 18 fields we are ranked in the top 1 percent in the world. We have particular research scientific strengths in neuroscience, immunology, bioengineering, microbiology and molecular biology. In the humanities, our School of English is ranked 3rd in the Europe after Oxford and Cambridge, and 14th in the world.
According to the Times Higher Education rankings, Trinity is also positioned highly – 16th in the world – in “international outlook”. I am particularly pleased by this ranking, because as president I put a lot of work into developing the international outlook of staff, students, and research projects.
In Trinity, we believe in exchanging ideas, research, and people with peer institutions round the world. We believe in a world community of scholars, teachers, and innovators, constantly striving for excellence, and we are delighted that recent technology and communications advances enable such a community.
But we don’t believe that excellence and internationalisation happen automatically. We know we have to be proactive about strategising. To this end we recently launched our Global Relations Strategy, which addresses a number of headline actions for globalizing research and education. These 5 actions include:
- Increasing student diversity and creating a cosmopolitan campus;
- Increasing research collaborations and staff exchanges;
- Creating markets for new courses;
- Encouraging an international mindset in staff and students;
- Finally, internationalising a city’s innovation ecosystem.
Today, as we sign this memorandum of understanding with SIT, we celebrate achievement within the framework of our Global Relations Strategy. And we also celebrate and build on our long-standing relationship with Singapore.
SINGAPORE, IRELAND, AND TRINITY’S SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
Singapore and Ireland share certain characteristics. We are both small countries with similar population sizes of around 5 million. We are both islands – or collections of islands – and we were both formerly part of the British Empire.
Trinity has a particular connection with Singapore because since the middle of the 19th century, many of our graduates have come to work and settle here. These graduates were principally civil servants, lawyers and doctors; today there are also many business people. The Trinity doctors who rose to prominence in the Singapore medical service helped form a connection between this country and their alma mater – Trinity’s Medicine School has benefitted, for a number of generations, from excellent students from Singapore.
Among our distinguished medical graduates from Singapore, I’d like to mention in particular, Dr Stanley Quek who sits on the board of Trinity Foundation and the Tercentenary Board of the School of Medicine. Formerly an eminent family physician, Stanley was also Ireland’s Honorary Consul General, serving Irish communities in Singapore, Brunei and Indonesia in the 1990s, before the Irish embassy was established in 2000. He continues to make a tremendous contribution to Trinity and Ireland, and I am very pleased to see him here with us today.
Trinity’s Medicine School has a particularly international profile, and as such it is an example of what we wish all our Schools to be. So it’s no surprise that today’s historic partnership between Trinity and SIT should be within the field of Health Sciences.
PHYSIOTHERAPY AND OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY
Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy were first introduced as degree programmes within the School of Medicine in 1986. In Ireland, there has been a shift, over the last few years, of resources and activity to the primary health care sector, which has led to opportunities for physiotherapists and occupational therapists to develop new initiatives in triage, rehabilitation, and extended care.
Recent physiotherapy research in Trinity has focussed on exercise in prevention and management of disease, while in occupational therapy, research has focused on service provision in conjunction with community partners. (Tadhg Stapleton’s work on driving assessment in patients after a stroke is an example of this).
These research areas proved of great interest in Singapore, where the Ministries of Health and Education identified a need for diploma graduates in Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy, to develop services in all health areas, but particularly in Primary Care, Extended Care, and Chronic Disease Management and Rehabilitation.
In October 2010, SIT made an initial visit to TCD and proposed a partnership for the delivery of courses in Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy. The achievement of this proposal is what we are celebrating today.
THE ONE-YEAR PROGRAMMES
Today, we launch two one-year programmes in Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy. Students of both programmes will come to Dublin. Physiotherapy students will complete a placement in an Irish clinical setting, and Occupational Therapy students will visit practice sites in the areas of Primary Care, Mental Health, Older Adults and Cognitive Rehabilitation. They will also have lectures from clinical specialists practising in these four areas.
Graduates of both programmes will be equipped with skills in critical analysis, service planning, leadership, and global health, all of which are important in driving both professions forward and meeting the healthcare needs of the people of Singapore, particularly in the management of chronic disease.
Both programmes have attracted excellent students. We look forward to working closely with SIT over the coming years and expanding the current student intake, as well as the programmes at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
CONCLUSION
To get to the signing ceremony today took an enormous amount of work on the parts of Trinity, SIT and NYP. I would like to thank:
- the President of SIT, Professor Tan Chin Tiong and
- the Vice-Presidents, Mr Tan Chek Ming, Professor Ting Seng Kiong and Mr Chen Wing Leong,
- as well as their departmental staff, particularly Jonathan Lim and Aloysius Goh.
We are delighted with the academic staff appointed by SIT and we look forward to working with Dr May Lim and Dr Alan Wong in the coming years. I acknowledge in particular all Alan has done in setting up the programmes.
In NYP, I would like to thank:
- the Principal, Mr Chan Lee Mun,
- and the head of the School of Health Sciences, Cheng Mun.
The heads of departments and the academic staff in Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy also proved invaluable in their support. I also would like to record my appreciation for the leadership role played by my colleague Dr Juliette Hussey. Collegiality is one of the fundamental values of Trinity College, so may I say how pleased I’ve been by the level of warmth and collegiality shown by our three institutions, and the willingness on all sides to overcome obstacles and put these programmes in place. By so doing we have enhanced the educational offerings of Trinity, SIT and NYP - as well of course as improving access to health care for the people of Singapore. Trinity is proud to play this role on the world stage.
When I consider this partnership – and other partnerships which Trinity has been able to form with peer institutes in Asia and round the world – I’m struck by the level of engagement, which even two decades ago no-one would have believed possible. Such engagement is thanks to technology developments, of course, but even more, it’s thanks to a new mindset on all our parts.
A spirit of openness, of trust, curiosity and interest – a global spirit – is what we want and must educate for in the century.
We have a saying in English “where there’s a will, there’s a way” and I do believe that willingness to co-operate is the crucial enabler, from which technology advances followed. This has created an historic opportunity to advance the cause of higher education worldwide, for us to do what universities are all about – that is, creating opportunity for our young people through education; the academic formation of each individual matters so that their life chances and their career can benefit as much as possible from the economic and social developments of our times.
I look forward to more links between Trinity and Singapore. I’m thinking particularly of ‘Science Gallery Singapore’. Trinity’s Science Gallery was opened four years ago in Dublin; the Science Gallery is a pioneering concept which marries science and art. Some of you may have attended our exhibition ‘Biorhythm’ which was in the Singapore’s Science Centre in August. We’re currently in advanced discussions to establish a Science Gallery in Singapore, and I look forward to the day when there is a further palpable connection between Trinity College Dublin and Singapore.
Thank you for your attention.
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