Book on NTU's founding years launched
Nanyang Technological University (NTU) was built with an initial budget of $170 million in the early 1980s.
The budget was approved by the government within a week after a Finance Ministry official called to chase for a figure.
The university's founding president, Professor Cham Tao Soon, did a quick calculation in 10 minutes on an envelope before submitting the figure to the ministry.
These stories and more are in Professor Cham's new book "The Making of NTU – My Story", which was launched on Monday by former Singapore president and NTU chancellor S R Nathan.
Professor Cham also revealed how he turned down a million-dollar job offer twice to build a university from scratch, a task for which he said he was paid about S$200,000 at that time.
But Professor Cham said he had no regrets, adding that his years at NTU were the most satisfying 20 years of his life as he had contributed to the engineering profession as well as to Singapore.
The book was written after Professor Cham told his story verbally to former journalist and academic Dr Leong Ching, who then transcribed word-for-word what he said. This was done over 12 three-hour sessions weekly before spending many more hours editing the text.
"The book starts at the tail end of an important decision by the government to build a second English-language national university on the campus of the former Nanyang University,” said Mr Nathan.
“It was up to Cham Tao Soon, a young engineer in his 40s, to try and work out the ways and means to negotiate a path with civil servants and other stakeholders like the Nanyang University alumni."
Professor Cham said: "My story is meant to be as truthful as possible, with parts of it on how I dealt with bureaucracy, Nanyang University alumni and other stakeholders.
“I would naturally have touched on sensitive points. This wasn't just a project to start a technological university, but also part of a solution to address the economic and political challenges of the time."
“This book arose through a meeting with the NTU President Professor Bertil Andersson and NTU Provost Professor Freddy Boey at end of 2012.
"Both felt that an in-depth account of the building of NTI, which later became NTU, was missing, and as the university's first president, I was the most appropriate person to write a book to share my experiences with those interested in the path we went through."
~News courtesy of Channel Newsasia~
Nanyang Technological University (NTU) was built with an initial budget of $170 million in the early 1980s.
The budget was approved by the government within a week after a Finance Ministry official called to chase for a figure.
The university's founding president, Professor Cham Tao Soon, did a quick calculation in 10 minutes on an envelope before submitting the figure to the ministry.
These stories and more are in Professor Cham's new book "The Making of NTU – My Story", which was launched on Monday by former Singapore president and NTU chancellor S R Nathan.
Professor Cham also revealed how he turned down a million-dollar job offer twice to build a university from scratch, a task for which he said he was paid about S$200,000 at that time.
But Professor Cham said he had no regrets, adding that his years at NTU were the most satisfying 20 years of his life as he had contributed to the engineering profession as well as to Singapore.
The book was written after Professor Cham told his story verbally to former journalist and academic Dr Leong Ching, who then transcribed word-for-word what he said. This was done over 12 three-hour sessions weekly before spending many more hours editing the text.
"The book starts at the tail end of an important decision by the government to build a second English-language national university on the campus of the former Nanyang University,” said Mr Nathan.
“It was up to Cham Tao Soon, a young engineer in his 40s, to try and work out the ways and means to negotiate a path with civil servants and other stakeholders like the Nanyang University alumni."
Professor Cham said: "My story is meant to be as truthful as possible, with parts of it on how I dealt with bureaucracy, Nanyang University alumni and other stakeholders.
“I would naturally have touched on sensitive points. This wasn't just a project to start a technological university, but also part of a solution to address the economic and political challenges of the time."
“This book arose through a meeting with the NTU President Professor Bertil Andersson and NTU Provost Professor Freddy Boey at end of 2012.
"Both felt that an in-depth account of the building of NTI, which later became NTU, was missing, and as the university's first president, I was the most appropriate person to write a book to share my experiences with those interested in the path we went through."
~News courtesy of Channel Newsasia~
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