NUS TO LAUNCH DOUBLE DEGREE IN LAW AND LIFE SCIENCES

The National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Faculty of Law and Faculty of Science will launch in July 2007 a new double degree programme in Law and Life Sciences.

The intersection between law and life sciences is an expansive one, cutting across many research areas including biotechnology, bioethics, environmental regulation, forensic science, and the protection of intellectual property. This double degree programme in Law and Life Sciences leverages on both Faculties’ strengths and will enable students to discover the broad connections between law and life sciences and acquire a broad expertise in both of these areas.

Students will be able to choose between a single honours double degree (with the honours in Law), which will allow them to complete both degrees in four-and-a-half years, or a double honours degree (with honours in Law and Life Sciences) which can be completed in five years. If pursued separately, students will need a total of six or seven years to complete both degrees.

Professor Tan Cheng Han, Senior Counsel and Dean of the Faculty of Law said, “We are very excited about this new programme, which is timely, given the importance of the life sciences industry to Singapore. The programme will strengthen Singapore’s efforts to be a centre for scientific innovation by ensuring that there is a core group of lawyers with the requisite science background to support the research and development work now taking place. It is also part of the Faculty of Law’s ongoing efforts, in collaboration with other faculties at NUS, to give our students a full range of choices to obtain a broad-based education, and to allow them to tailor their university experience to suit their strengths.”

Professor Tan Eng Chye, Dean of the Faculty of Science commented, “The Faculty of Science has established many joint programmes with other Faculties. It is indeed a very propitious time to launch this new double degree programme with the Faculty of Law, in view of the opportunities it can provide for students to be trained on problems and issues that can be considered from both the legal and science perspectives. We look forward to producing a new breed of lawyers in Singapore with a strong background in the life sciences, who will be in high demand in areas requiring expertise in legal aspects involving intellectual property, biotechnology practice or even the judicial system where advances in science have made available more scientific evidence to be presented.”

The new double degree in Law and Life Sciences will be the fifth double degree programme offered by the Faculty of Law. Other double degree programmes allow students to study Business, Economics, or – at the postgraduate level – Public Policy, alongside their undergraduate law degrees. In May 2007, the first cohort of students in the NYU@NUS programme will commence their studies that will allow them to obtain LLM degrees from NUS and New York University Law School.