President Ilkka Niemelä’s Delegation at Singaporean Universities: Life-long learning and interdisciplinarity in limelight

Singaporean universities are desired destinations for Aalto’s outgoing exchange students and vice versa.  Aalto University delegation visit on 3-6 April 2018 sought to strengthen the on-going cooperation, especially with SUTD towards a more strategic level.  The delegation of 15 included Provost Kristiina Mäkelä, Vice President for External Relations Hannu Seristö and 7 professors.

Aalto participants were impressed with the concrete efforts taken by the universities in promoting the ‘Skillsfuture’ programme for life-long learning in cooperation with the Singaporean Government. In the words of Provost Kristiina Mäkelä: “We are talking about it [life-long learning], but they already doing it!” The ecological infrastructure for participatory learning and the unique interdisciplinary academic structure at SUTD also caught the fullest attention of Aalto delegation. The Singaporean Universities in turn expressed their admiration for Aalto’s achievements entrepreneurial activities.

The visit recognized strong signals for continuing cooperation with all the Singaporean universities. With SUTD, both parties are committed to come up with concrete suggestions for concrete ways of collaboration in the coming months.

In the pictures; On the left- NTU Provost Ling San and Professor Michael Khor sharing a light moment with Aalto President Niemelä and Provost Mäkelä. In the middle;  Ms Charleen Phor Xiu Hui giving a tour of The Hangar at NUS Enterprise to Tiina Nyman, President of Aaltoes and to Professor Markettä Kyttä. On the right; SUTD Professor Lin Wuzhong and a student from SUTD explaining the projects in SUTD's Fab Lab