NUS Law returns to Kent Ridge campus in Academic Year 2025

As part of continuing efforts to deliver a holistic learning experience and expand the scale and accessibility of interdisciplinary education to nurture agile, resilient and forward-thinking graduates, the National University of Singapore (NUS) will welcome the NUS Faculty of Law (NUS Law) back to Kent Ridge campus – in University Town – in the new Academic Year starting August 2025.

This marks a significant step by the University to further integrate its distinctive law degree programmes into its comprehensive and interdisciplinary undergraduate education, infuse the teaching and learning of law more extensively into its broader suite of interdisciplinary academic offerings, and bring law students more closely into the fold of the main campus.

The returning of NUS Law to Kent Ridge, a decision made after careful consideration and planning, aims to enrich the educational experience of all students.

NUS Law students will benefit from opportunities to enhance their interdisciplinary learning with easier access to a wide selection of courses – such as non-law elective courses and non-law minors – offered by other colleges, faculties and schools at Kent Ridge, and interact with the 50,000-strong student population from diverse disciplines and backgrounds. They will also be able to fully immerse in the vibrant student life, extensive residential options and out-of-classroom experiences at Kent Ridge. This will bring about stronger collegiality, closer community bonding, and the flourishing of every student in personal growth and development.

The integration of law faculty and staff into the main campus will also foster a more vibrant academic environment, encouraging collaborations in teaching, research and administration.

NUS President Professor Tan Eng Chye said, “We are excited to welcome the NUS Law community back to Kent Ridge. This homecoming is a meaningful milestone that is more than just a physical relocation. It is a reaffirmation of our commitment to be more closely integrated, collaborative and innovative in our aspirations in research and teaching. I am looking forward to having the NUS Law family back on the main campus where they had spent 25 years from 1981 to 2006.”

The NUS Law community, comprising about 1,000 undergraduate and 250 postgraduate students, and 160 full-time faculty and staff, will move into the Yale-NUS College premises, located in University Town, after the final batch of Yale-NUS College students graduate in May 2025. NUS Law will be neighbours with NUS College, with both faculties co-locating in the same premises.

The NUS Centre for International Law – a university-level research centre – will also move together with NUS Law from Bukit Timah to Kent Ridge campus.

Making Kent Ridge home once again allows NUS Law to reinvent and grow

The then University of Malaya – NUS’ predecessor institution – admitted its first cohort of law students in 1957 where they pursued their law studies at the Bukit Timah campus. In 1980, NUS was established and the Faculty of Law became a part of NUS. The faculty moved together with NUS to the Kent Ridge campus in 1981 where it called home for the next 25 years. In July 2006, the faculty moved back to Bukit Timah campus when the site was returned to NUS. NUS Law has since flourished into one of the leading institutions for legal education, research and engagement in Singapore and the region.

Professor Andrew Simester, Dean of NUS Law, said, “We look forward to the opportunities this new development will create for our students, faculty, and the wider NUS community. Our new home in University Town will bring us closer to the Kent Ridge community as we work together and stretch the boundaries of our scholarly research and teaching. With law increasingly interwoven across multidisciplinary domains such as healthcare, AI and sustainability, our law students will find it much easier to read non-law electives or explore a non-law minor to complement their law degree. Returning to Kent Ridge marks a new chapter for the growth and advancement of NUS Law, and we look forward to greater collaboration and synergy.”

The University will ensure plans are in place for NUS Law to have a smooth transition in the move to its new premises, ready to start the new Academic Year in August 2025 at University Town in Kent Ridge.

This story was first published on 27 May 2024 on NUS News. Click here for more NUS News stories.