SIT to build new campus in Punggol by 2023
91,000 sq m university, to accommodate 12,000 students, will be integrated with communities in north-east
The Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) is starting a new chapter in its journey with a campus in Punggol, to be built by 2023. It will be integrated with industry and communities in the north-east region of Singapore and will be the first university there.
The move will further strengthen SIT's unique industry-focused, applied-learning model. When completed, the 91,000 sq m campus on two plots of land, about the size of 17 football fields, will be able to accommodate 12,000 students, far more than the 8,000 students in the university's distributed campuses at the five polytechnics and Dover Road now.
The university will be co-located with JTC's business park buildings in the Punggol Digital District - a centre for digital and cyber security industries - enabling students, faculty and industry professionals to work together on projects.
For example, new ideas conceived in SIT could be test-bedded in the companies there, enabling products to come onto the market faster.
Also, companies can tap SIT's applied learning and research capabilities, as well as its talent pool in areas such as cyber security, engineering, food technology, assistive technology, allied health and hospitality.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who was at the ground-breaking ceremony of the campus yesterday, said that what sets SIT apart from the other five autonomous universities is the greater emphasis on practice-oriented learning.
He referred to SIT's origins in the Polytechnic-Foreign Specialised Institutions scheme 14 years ago, where polytechnics partnered with a small group of overseas universities to offer niche degree programmes for their graduates.
After running the programme for about four years, the Education Ministry decided to set up SIT in 2009 to bring all the degree programmes under one institution.
Today, as an autonomous university, SIT runs 42 degree programmes and awards degrees in its own name.
PM Lee noted the healthy 90 per cent job rate for the university graduates and said: "SIT's model balances meeting students' degree aspirations, while ensuring they are sought after by the industry."
Among the state-of-the art features of the new campus will be a smart network of over 10,000 sensors that will collect temperature, ambient light and human presence data. The data will be continuously analysed and adjustments made to enhance work-space efficiency.
It will also be the first university in South-east Asia to have a micro-grid network that draws energy from various sources.
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