Singapore’s Daren Tang won the WIPO Director General post

Singaporean Daren Tang has been elected to be the next director-general of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) after winning a vote in Geneva on Wednesday (Mar 4).

 In a letter proposing Tang as a candidate for the WIPO DG position, Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan described Tang as “an experienced and inclusive leader who is able to balance the interests of all stakeholders to forge consensus.” Balakrishnan said that Tang has transformed IPOS from a regulator to an “innovation agency” and noted his extensive experience with bilateral and multilateral trade negotiations.  - ipwatchdog.com

"This is the first time a Singaporean has been nominated for the leadership position of a UN Agency," said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.


Mr Tang, the chief executive of the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS), was among the six in the race for the top job.
The other candidates were from China, Colombia, Ghana, Kazakhstan and Peru.

WIPO's coordination committee, which comprises 83 member states, held two rounds of voting.

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• Singaporean Daren Tang set to head UN intellectual property agency WIPO

• Singapore nominates IPOS chief to head World Intellectual Property Organisation

Water Price Reversions 2017

Read Water Price 2017

SINGAPORE - Water prices will increase for the first time in 17 years, Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat said on Monday (Feb 20). Including taxes, the prices will go up by 30 per cent in two phases. The first hike will be from July 1 this year, and the second from July 1 next year. But lower and middle income households will get help to manage the increase.- source : The Straits Times

2017 - Singapore score 'most powerful' passport: Index

SINGAPORE: Singapore has tied with Germany as the country with the most powerful passport in the world after a change in Ukraine's visa rules, according to a passport index by global financial advisory firm Arton Capital.
CNA - 19 April 2017

 Read more here

NUS and NTU retain positions as top two universities in Asia on Quacquarelli Symonds’ rankings

The National University of Singapore (NUS) has been named Asia’s top university for the third year in a row on the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings, just ahead of Nanyang Technological University (NTU).- Todayonline

QS' TOP 30 UNIVERSITIES 2016

1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

2. Stanford University

3. Harvard University

4. University of Cambridge

5. California Institute of Technology (Caltech)

6. University of Oxford

7. UCL (University College London)

8. ETH Zurich - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology

9. Imperial College London

10. University of Chicago

11. Princeton University

12. National University of Singapore (NUS)

13. Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU)

14. Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)

15. Yale University

16. Cornell University

17. Johns Hopkins University

18. University of Pennsylvania

19. The University of Edinburgh

20. Columbia University

21. King's College London

22. The Australian National University

23. University of Michigan

24. Tsinghua University

24. Duke University

26. Northwestern University

27. The University of Hong Kong

28. University of California, Berkeley (UCB)

29. The University of Manchester

30. McGill University  

2016 - News on NUS sexualised orientation activities

"We are very disappointed that despite these efforts, instances of offensive and completely inappropriate orientation activities that were not submitted nor endorsed have surfaced": National University of Singapore. - CNA

The lewd orientation activities "were not submitted nor endorsed". Strong disciplinary action will be taken, says NUS. - The Straits Times

One student complained that her peers were made to re-enact a rape scene, while another was asked whose bodily fluids she would like to drink. NUS says: "Strong disciplinary action will be taken against those found responsible" - TNP

Acting Minister for Education (Higher Education and Skills) Ong Ye Kung has spoken out against the recent sexed-up National University of Singapore (NUS) orientation camps.
In a Facebook post on Wednesday, July 27, he said university orientation activities must be carried out in a manner that respects the dignity of the freshmen.
He also said NUS has made clear to him that it does not condone such incidents. The university is conducting an investigation and will take strong disciplinary actions against those found responsible.
Describing one of the activities the freshmen were subjected to as “reprehensible”, Ong wrote:

Pretending to ejaculate into the face of a fellow student plays no part in this purpose – it is a reprehensible act that cannot be tolerated; goading others to act out a rape scene not only degrades the real suffering of rape victims, it inflicts fresh humiliation on female students.
Protesting such acts has nothing to do with being prudish or a bad sport, everything to do with respect for human dignity.

- by Mothership.sg link

"Pretending to ejaculate into the face of a fellow student plays no part in this purpose - it is a reprehensible act that cannot be tolerated; goading others to act out a rape scene not only degrades the real suffering of rape victims, it inflicts fresh humiliation on female students." - Minister Ong Ye Kung STOMP








The students' union of NUS says sorry to freshmen for “sexualised activities" that were "indecent, reprehensible and not condoned". - Today online



The university would need time and space over the next few months to rethink how to do orientation so that all students enjoy the experience, said NUS president Tan Chorh Chuan. - The Straits Times 2 Aug 2016 link

2016 - National University of Singapore (NUS) rank number 1 by Quacquarelli Symonds

According to the ranking by London-based education consultancy Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) which was released on 14 June 2016, National University of Singapore (NUS) was ranked 1st in Asia.

NUS has been named top Asian university for third straight year.

The QS Asia University Rankings uses 10 key performance indicators to compare Asian universities, including academic reputation, employer reputation, faculty-student ratio, papers per faculty, the proportion of international faculty and students, and proportion of inbound and outbound exchange students. - The Straits Times

Sabah quake - one year on

Remembering the victims