Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy

History

The Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, or LKY School, is an autonomous postgraduate school of the National University of Singapore (NUS). The QS World University Rankings (2015/164) ranked NUS 12th in the world and 1st in Asia. It was formally launched on 4 August 2004 and named in honour of Singapore’s first and longest-serving Prime Minister. The School inherited the Policy Programme that NUS had set up with Harvard Kennedy School in 1992. Today, the LKY School offers four master's degree programmes and a PhD programme, and has four research centres.

The mission of the School is to 'educate and inspire current and future generations of leaders to raise the standards of governance in Asia, improve the lives of its people and contribute to the transformation of the region.'

Its Executive Education, the consultancy arm of the School, established also in 2010 provides short term training programs for over 2,000 senior professionals annually from over 90 countries worldwide.

As of 2014, the School has over 2,200 alumni from nearly 80 countries. About 80 per cent of its student body consists of international students with the rest from Singapore.

Graduate degrees

The School offers four master's degree programmes. They are:

It also offers a PhD in Public Policy.

Dual degrees and exchanges

Both MPP and MPA students may choose to pursue a double degree with NUS Business School (MPA-MBA) or NUS Law School (MPA-LLM).

As a member of the Global Public Policy Network (GPPN), students from its MPP programme have the opportunity to enroll in a dual degree programme with either the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University, London School of Economics, Sciences Po, GraSPP, University of Tokyo, Peking University, Tsinghua University, or University of Geneva.

The School has student exchange programmes with:

Asia and the Pacific

Americas

Europe

Africa & the Middle East

Research

The LKY School has built up research expertise in seven core areas principally, which are key areas of public policy challenges in Asia in the years and decades ahead. The five baskets of research focus are:

The LKY School has four research centres, providing research on the latest developments in public policy. These are:

Asia Competitiveness Institute

The Asia Competitiveness Institute (ACI) was established in 2006 to build the intellectual leadership and network for understanding and developing competitiveness in the ASEAN region. ACI seeks to contribute to the enhancement of economic growth and living standards in the region. It serves as a regional repository of competitiveness information that enables analyses of long-term trends in economic policies and development. It conducts research to understand patterns of policy and economic development, and develops models that are applicable to different contexts. It also undertakes projects to assess current competitiveness of key economic clusters and provide policy inputs for enhancing growth. The ACI is an affiliated institute of the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness at Harvard University.

Centre on Asia and Globalisation

The Centre on Asia and Globalisation (CAG) was established in 2006 to analyse the management of global issues and Asia’s role in a rapidly changing and integrating world. Within this broad context, CAG has mapped out two initial areas of research: the mechanisms of global governance, and energy governance. The Centre’s research on global governance investigates a variety of innovative approaches to managing global issues, including: transparency and information; the public roles of the private sector; and inter-governmental organisations. The energy governance programme examines the policies and institutions needed to bring about a shift to a more effective, efficient, and sustainable global energy system, with a focus on the role of Asia in shaping globalisation forces.

Institute of Policy Studies

The Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) is a think-tank dedicated to fostering good governance in Singapore through strategic policy research. It focuses on Singapore’s domestic developments and external relations taking a multidisciplinary approach with an emphasis on long-term strategic thinking. Established in 1988, IPS became an institute within the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in 2008.

Institute of Water Policy

The Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy established the Institute of Water Policy in June 2008 in partnership with the Singapore Public Utilities Board (PUB) and receives funding from the PUB and Singapore’s Tote Board. The Institute’s research is also funded by many local partners including Sembcorp and Temasek Foundation; local and international government agencies such the National Environment Agency (NEA) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA); and international organisations such as the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

The mission of the Institute is to enhance understanding of the social and economic dimensions of water governance and contribute to improved water management in Asia. IWP undertakes independent research and engages in institutional and corporate partnerships to influence the discourse on water governance issues and make a difference in water governance and management. IWP brings together a diverse group of scholars from various disciplines across the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. Amongst them, Visiting Professor Asit Biswas, founder of the Third World Centre for Water Management in Mexico and recipient of the 2006 Stockholm Water Prize; and Michael Howlett, editor-in-chief of Policy Sciences journal.

School publications

The LKY School publishes a number of research papers, journals and books. Two flagship publications are:

Policy and Society

Policy and Society is sponsored by LKY School and edited by its faculty members Professors Michael Howlett and M Ramesh along with Professors Giliberto Capano (University of Bologna) and Darryl Jarvis (Hong Kong Institute of Education). It is a SSCI-listed journal that ranks 9th on the SCImago Journal Rankings (SJR Indicator) in the field of Public Administration.

Global-is-Asian

Published every quarter, Global-is-Asian is the flagship magazine of LKY School that focuses on public policy research undertaken by the School. It highlights contemporary policy debates and offers reportage. The magazine also features research by faculty, PhD students and the School’s research centres, on areas of public interest particularly for Asian governments.

Distinguished Speakers Series

LKY School hosts conferences and lectures for its students as well as the wider public. Visitors who have spoken at the School include former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, former Australia Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Pulitzer prize-winning author Thomas Friedman, Nobel laureates Elinor Ostrom, Amartya Sen, Muhammad Yunus, Aung San Suu Kyi, and former US Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker.

Noteworthy alumni

Campus

The LKY School is situated at the Bukit Timah campus together with the NUS Law Faculty, next to the Singapore Botanic Gardens. It is based primarily in the Manasseh Meyer and Oei Tiong Ham buildings. The NUS Bukit Timah campus was built in the 1920s in order to facilitate the Raffles College, and later served as headquarters of Japanese Army during the Japanese occupation. The site became the campus for the Singapore Division of University of Malaya in 1949, then The University of Singapore in 1962, and the merged National University of Singapore in 1980.

After NUS moved its campus to Kent Ridge, the site served as the campus of the National Institute of Education and Singapore Management University (SMU), respectively. After SMU moved into their permanent campus at Bras Basah in 2005, the campus was returned to NUS, and became the campus for NUS Law School and the LKY School in the following year.

Before the December 2006 move to Bukit Timah, the LKY School was located at Heng Mui Keng Terrace on the NUS main Kent Ridge campus.