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Milestones Milestones Milestones
Milestones
Milestones

Key DatesMilestones
Jun 2008The Ministry of Education’s International Academic Advisory Panel recommended the establishment of a liberal arts college in Singapore
Jan 2009Then National University of Singapore (NUS) President, Professor Tan Chorh Chuan, and then Yale University President, Professor Richard C Levin, met at Davos at the World Economic Forum and mooted the idea of forming a liberal arts and sciences college in Singapore with Yale
Aug 2009Faculty at NUS and Yale studied the issues of planning a curriculum, recruiting a faculty and designing a residential college
Sept 2010Memorandum of Understanding to consider Yale-NUS College was signed
Apr 2011Final agreement signed to launch Yale-NUS College
Aug 2011Global architects Pelli Clarke Pelli retained to design the campus, with Singapore’s  Forum Architects
Jan 2012Two joint programmes in Law and Environmental Studies were launched: the Double Degree Programme in Law and Liberal Arts offered jointly by Yale-NUS and Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore, and a Special Programme offered by Yale-NUS and the Yale School of the Environment
Feb 2012Inaugural round of admissions opened
Jun 2012Inaugural faculty hired and year-long intensive planning process began
Jul 2012Pericles Lewis became Yale NUS’ first President
Jun 2013Yale-NUS College welcomed the inaugural class of over 150 students comprising 26 nationalities with a summer immersion programme at Yale in New Haven
Aug 2013Class of 2017 began the Common Curriculum
Aug 2013Inauguration Ceremony was graced by then President of the Republic of Singapore, Dr Tony Tan Keng Yam
Apr 2015A five-year Concurrent Degree Programme with Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy NUS was launched
May 2015A  five-year Concurrent Degree Programme  with Yale School of Public Health was launched
Jul 2015Yale-NUS College moved into its campus at 16 College Avenue West
Oct 2015Yale-NUS College marked the inauguration of its College campus with a ceremony officiated by then Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong  and held a symposium on international liberal education
Jul 2017119 students graduated from Yale-NUS College’s inaugural cohort
Jul 2017Professor Tan Tai Yong appointed second Yale-NUS President
Jan 2018Yale-NUS & Duke-NUS Liberal Arts and Medicine Pathway with Duke-NUS Medical School was launched
Feb 2019A  five-year Concurrent Degree Programme with NUS School of Computing was launched
Aug 2021NUS announced the decision to combine Yale-NUS College and the University Scholars Programme (USP) into a single new college now known as NUS College
Jul 2022Professor Joanne Roberts appointed Yale-NUS’ third President
Mar 2023Yale-NUS College’s first Geopolitics Conference was held in partnership with the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs, supported by the Tan Chin Tuan Chinese Culture & Civilisation Programme
Jan 2024Yale-NUS organised a liberal arts symposium on Learning from Global Liberal Arts Education: Innovation and Resilience
May 2024Approximately 11 per cent of the College’s 2017- 2024 cohort went directly to graduate school
Feb 2025Annually, around 90% of College’s graduates were employed within six months of completing their final examinations, based on the annual Joint Autonomous Universities Graduate Employment Surveys from 2017 – 2024 
May 2025Yale-NUS College celebrated its final graduation
June 2025Yale-NUS College is officially closed