{"id":10418,"date":"2025-09-03T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T02:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/?p=10418"},"modified":"2025-09-08T08:14:45","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T00:14:45","slug":"nus-and-um-celebrate-shared-origins-and-close-ties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/2025\/09\/03\/nus-and-um-celebrate-shared-origins-and-close-ties\/","title":{"rendered":"NUS and UM Celebrate Shared Origins and Close Ties"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Sixty-three years after their formal separation, the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Universiti Malaya (UM) continue to honour their shared origins and enduring relationship.<\/p>

Late last month, the two universities came together in Ipoh, Malaysia, to celebrate their social and academic ties through the 54th<\/sup> edition of the UM-NUS Inter-University Tunku Chancellor Golf Tournament, as well as the concurrent UM-NUS Joint Academic Symposium on Precision Health.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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On 25 August, a royal dinner was held in honour of Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, President of the Republic of Singapore and Chancellor of NUS (left), graciously hosted by HRH Sultan Dr Nazrin Muizzuddin Shah, Sultan of Perak and Chancellor of UM (right), and the Raja Permaisuri of Perak, Her Royal Highness Tuanku Zara Salim (not pictured). <\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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To mark the occasion, a royal dinner was held on 25 August 2025 at the Istana Iskandariah, Kuala Kangsar. The event was hosted by the UM Chancellor, His Royal Highness (HRH) Sultan Dr Nazrin Muizzuddin Shah, Sultan of Perak, and the Raja Permaisuri of Perak, Her Royal Highness Tuanku Zara Salim. It was attended by the NUS Chancellor and President of the Republic of Singapore, Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, and his spouse, Mrs Jane Ittogi Shanmugaratnam, as well as Singapore\u2019s High Commissioner to Malaysia, Mr Vanu Gopala Menon (Business \u201985) and his spouse, Mrs Jayanthi Menon (Law \u201989). Other members of the NUS delegation included Mr Hsieh Fu Hua, Chairman of the NUS Board of Trustees; Professor Tan Eng Chye (Science \u201985), NUS President; and Ms Ovidia Lim-Rajaram (Arts & Social Sciences \u201989), NUS Chief Alumni Officer, alongside participating academics and golfers.<\/p>

In remarks made at the dinner, Professor Tan stated, \u201cThis is the second year we have paired the tournament with an academic symposium, symbolising the diverse and multilayered nature of the UM-NUS relationship: one that values both personal connection and intellectual exchange, each deepening and enriching the other.\u201d<\/p>

The sentiment was echoed by the Vice-Chancellor of UM,\u00a0Professor Dato’ Seri Ir. Dr Noor Azuan bin Abu Osman, who observed, \u201cWhat gives universities their unique power is that we do not compete for resources in the same way states or corporations do. Instead, we compete by collaborating, and we grow stronger by sharing.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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The Vice-Chancellor of UM, Professor Dato\u2019 Seri Ir Dr Noor Azuan bin Abu Osman, provided the opening address at the UM-NUS Joint Academic Symposium 2025. <\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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PARTNERS IN PROGRESS<\/strong><\/p>

This commitment to collaboration and knowledge exchange was evident at the joint academic symposium on 26 August 2025, themed around precision health. The event featured presentations from 10 distinguished researchers and professors from both UM and NUS, with speakers highlighting the ongoing transformation of healthcare from a one-size-fits-all model to one driven by personalised medicine and data-driven solutions.<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s always meaningful when we can come together to leverage our complementary strengths and address shared challenges,\u201d said Professor Tai E Shyong from the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine. \u201cUM and NUS have tremendous potential to advance medical research focused on Asian populations, with events like this providing a valuable platform to exchange ideas, foster collaboration, and drive progress in ways that ultimately improve the healthcare outcomes of our communities.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Ms Angelia Tay, Head of Marketing and Communications at NUS-ISS (centre), served as the NUS Golf Captain for the 2025 tournament, making her the first female to hold the position. She is pictured with fellow Team NUS golfers Mr Eric Tan (left) and Mr Bryan Chen (Engineering '05) (right). <\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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FRIENDSHIP IN FULL SWING<\/strong><\/p>

Complementing the joint symposium, the UM-NUS Inter-University Tunku Chancellor Golf Tournament took place on 26 August 2025 at the Royal Perak Golf Club, following a social round held the previous day at the Meru Valley Golf & Country Club. \u00a0More than 100 golfers\u2014including faculty, staff and alumni from both institutions\u2014participated in the event. \u00a0<\/p>

First held in 1968 as a symbol of the strong relationship between senior leaders of UM and NUS, the longstanding tournament is hosted alternately by the two universities, strengthening ties across their academic and alumni communities.<\/p>

This year, the UM team emerged victorious, capping off an eventful two days reaffirming more than six decades of friendship and collaboration.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UM and NUS came together in August for the 54th edition of the UM-NUS Inter-University Tunku Chancellor Golf Tournament, as well as the UM-NUS Joint Academic Symposium on Precision Health. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":10419,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_theme","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-events"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10418"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10418\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10612,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10418\/revisions\/10612"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}