UB celebrates 15 years in Singapore

As UB’s global stature continues to grow, university leaders celebrated a milestone this summer by marking the 15-year anniversary of its Singapore Institute of Management (SIM) campus in Singapore.

President Satish K. Tripathi and School of Management Dean Paul Tesluk were on hand to mark the occasion at an anniversary celebration in July.

They and other university leaders — including John Wood, interim vice provost for international education, and Joseph Hindrawan, associate vice provost and director of international enrollment management — met with government ministers, CEOs, UB alumni and key partners in Singapore and Indonesia, and attended the UB SIM commencement ceremony.

“This program is such a point of pride for me personally, and for our entire university community,” Tripathi said. “We should all take pride in the fact that ours is a model program — and one of the most successful U.S. programs in Singapore.”

Tripathi added that this success is indicative not only of the UB Singapore program’s appeal, but of the quality of its students, faculty and administrative leadership. “We have continuously attracted highly motivated and highly accomplished students,” he said, adding that UB’s success in Singapore reflects the university’s global impact and significance.

“In the field of international education, the UB Singapore program in transnational education is viewed as one of the most successful, if not the most successful, in the world,” said Stephen Dunnett, who has overseen UB’s SIM programs from the beginning.

“Such programs are difficult to establish and sustain, which is why so few have endured more than a few years,” added Dunnett, who stepped down as UB’s vice provost for international education last summer, but continued to oversee UB’s Singapore programs until his retirement last month.

During the anniversary reception, Tripathi thanked Dunnett and the program’s other founders:

• Ronald Tan, SIM’s recently retired executive director who negotiated the agreement with UB 17 years ago.
• Former School of Management Dean John Thomas, who initiated UB’s MBA partnership with SIM.
• Franklin Lavin, the former U.S. ambassador to Singapore who strongly encouraged UB to collaborate with SIM and hosted the first signing ceremony.

Tripathi also recognized outgoing UB SIM chapter president Andrew Tan, and welcomed incoming president Sean Loke.

Debra Street, professor of sociology in the College of Arts and Sciences and coordinator of UB’s sociology program at SIM, represented Dean Robin Schulze at the commencement. Ann Bisantz, dean of undergraduate education, also attended the commencement. This was her first visit to the program and she had meetings at SIM with administrators, faculty and students.

UB and the Singapore Institute of Management offer a variety of degree programs, and their partnership goes back to 1996, when the School of Management established the first U.S.-accredited Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) program in Singapore.

The extension of SIM’s collaboration with UB in offering undergraduate programs in several other disciplines enables more than 1,500 students from Singapore and the surrounding region to benefit from the U.S.-style curriculum. The program also offers opportunities for UB students to study at SIM.

“Serving the talented and diligent Singapore students, as well as the American students who have come to study in Singapore, has been a great privilege and I am so very proud of their academic success and of the successful careers they have made as UB alumni,” Dunnett said.

UB had been offering six undergraduate programs at SIM: business administration, communication, psychology, sociology, economics and international trade. This fall, UB will introduce a seventh program, in geographic information science (GIS).

“It is so exciting to see our program continue to grow and evolve,” Tripathi said. “We look forward to many more years of continued cooperation and success in Singapore.”

Over the past 15 years, 6,474 students have enrolled in UB’s undergraduate programs in Singapore, with 64% of the program’s graduates receiving Latin honors. In addition, more than 500 UB students have participated in study abroad at the Singapore Institute of Management.

“Our graduates are guided by the principle of informed, engaged citizenship. As a result, they are taking their place in the world as globally minded, ethically grounded leaders,” Tripathi said. “It is so gratifying to see our students contributing to the development of Singapore and, more broadly, to society at large.”