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As a Residential College, residents of Tembusu College live and learn together with their peers under the same roof. Integral to the learning is the University Town College Programme (UTCP) where residents read five Seminar-style Modules over their two year residency. Find out more About the Programme or browse available modules on the left.
Concerned about the workload? Find out How UTCP Fits with your faculty-based degree programme at NUS.
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Keen to continue residing at the college after completing the UTCP? Find out what lies ahead in the Senior Learning Experience.
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A home away from home, the Tembusu College community is 21 storeys of collegiate spirit known for its friendly and welcoming culture. Wake up or wind down through casual conversations with your Fellows and peers over meals at the Dining Hall. Sweat it out over sports at the Multi Purpose Hall. Huddle with like-minded individuals at one of the many Student-run Interest Groups & Student-Initiated Projects or start your own. Let loose or let your creativity flow in the well furnished Student Spaces. Be our Student Partners and contribute to the College community. Need career advice? Stressed? Need help on personal issues? Or simply want catch up with friendly members of our Residential Team? We’re here for you. Tembusu College is much more than a home; it’s a Home of Possibilities.
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The Tembusu (Fagraea fragrans) is a large evergreen tree in the family Gentianaceae. It is native to Southeast Asia. Its trunk is dark brown, with deeply fissured bark, looking somewhat like a bittergourd. It grows in an irregular shape from 10 to 25m high. Its leaves are light green and oval in shape. Its yellowish flowers have a distinct fragrance and the fruits of the tree are bitter tasting red berries, which are eaten by birds and fruit bats. Source: Tembusu, Wikipedia

Is heritage important? Why?

Posted on April 26, 2016October 7, 2020

Undergraduates from Tembusu College (National University of Singapore), the American University of Central Asia in Bishkek and Indiana University participated in a small project conducted by Prof Anne Pyburn while she was in teaching in Kyrgystan. They were asked whether they think heritage is important, and if so, why? The answers were charming, sincere, poetic and surprisingly varied. Despite general agreement on the value of heritage, preservation, and the importance of recognition of a shared past, the students’ answers showed that ideas about heritage are extremely personal.

Although this is an extremely preliminary and small scale study, it has implications for the value of the concept of “world heritage” which tends to distance people from their own history and make the past seem homogeneous, irrelevant, and boring. It also inclines people to think that there is only one correct story about the past, which many scholars have begun to see as Colonial and damaging to Indigenous peoples and groups who are politically disadvantaged. Promoting world heritage may not be the best mechanism for preservation or even education. We should probably begin to talk about the world’s “many heritages”.