Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) hosted Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong during his inaugural visit to the university’s SIT@Dover campus on 26 January where he was warmly welcomed by Senior Minister of State Indranee Rajah, Ministry of Law and Ministry of Education, Professor Tan Thiam Soon, President, SIT, and members of the senior management from SIT and MOE.
The visit opened with a briefing by Prof Tan who updated PM Lee on developments within SIT including student enrolment and faculty hires, as well as the challenges faced by our distributed campus model. PM Lee went on to meet up with over 40 student leaders comprising students from the overseas university (OU) partner programmes as well as SIT degree programmes, and engaged them in lively group discussions.
He was then taken on a short tour of the SIT@Dover campus, where he was shown parts of the former SUTD facilities, which SIT will be taking over in February. PM Lee’s visit culminated in a meet-and-greet session with more than 20 SIT faculty members at the Student Activities Centre.
Ong Por Yee, who is reading SIT’s Bachelor of Engineering with Honours in Information and Communications Technology (Software Engineering), found PM Lee “engaging”. He said: “He definitely wanted to find out more about us. I feel that he is quite open and is definitely warmer in person compared to how he is usually portrayed in the media.”
Muhamad Fariz Bin Junaidi, who is reading a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Communication Design at The Glasgow School of Art Singapore, found PM Lee “down-to-earth and relatable”. He added that he liked the way the Prime Minister injected humour into the sessions to make the students feel more at ease: “It was intimidating at first but he made it comfortable for us to approach him. His views were also helpful in clarifying whatever doubts we had.”
During his visit, PM Lee was accompanied by a delegation comprising Ms Indranee Rajah, Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Law and Ministry of Education, and Ms Chan Lai Fung, Permanent Secretary (Education), MOE.
