Oral History Collection

Oral History of SMU: The People and Ideas behind the SMU Story

About this Project

In January 2010, the Singapore Management University (SMU) commemorated its 10th anniversary. To mark this significant milestone, SMU Chairman Ho Kwon Ping called for efforts to gather the records that encapsulate the thinking behind the setting up of Singapore’s third university and to make these records available in the library archives. The initiative also involved gathering the oral history accounts from the people who were involved in the establishment of SMU.

“Conceptualising SMU: The People and Ideas behind the SMU Story” is a project to record the personal recollections of stories, ideas and thinking by those involved in planning and shaping SMU - the visionaries, architects and pioneers. We acknowledge the 21 individuals who provided us their valuable time to recount their stories and review their transcripts. The idea of the third University was first mooted by then Deputy Prime Minister Dr Tony Tan in 1996 and we are gratified to have had him be involved in the project and fortuitously now be SMU’s Patron and President of Singapore. Dr John Yip who was then Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Singapore Institute of Management and wrote the very first concept paper on the third university in 1997 also graciously participated in the project. SMU Chairman Ho Kwon Ping and other pioneers of SMU, all four SMU presidents and five founding deans also offered their personal recollections in this phase of the project.

Also added were interviews with selected faculty and staff with key departments in SMU who helped to grow SMU; for example Mr Sim Teow Hong who headed the Office of Finance and Annie Koh who headed the Office of Executive and Professional Education. There was a shift to interview the incoming and outgoing Presidents and Provosts of SMU. We also added some interviews with senior administrative staff that were published in SMU CIRCLE.

At the heart of the University are its students. The oral history collection also includes accounts from pioneer students and these are encapsulated in six thematic videos covering various aspects of their SMU experience.

This oral history project was a joint initiative of SMU Libraries and Integrated Information Technology Services (IITS).

A book about the making of SMU, entitled Daringly Different, was published in 2015 and used the oral history interviews as one of the resources.