The making of NTU: my story

Honest Sharings on the Birth of NTU

PROFESSOR Cham Tao Soon became the founding president of Nanyang Technological Institute (NTI) in 1981. He continued his tenure as the president of the NTI till 1990. When NTI was reconstituted as Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in 1991, he served as president until December 2002. He was then conferred the title of president emeritus on 23 July 2007.

Professor Cham is highly respected as he has been instrumental not just in the NTI/NTU story but in the formation of the Singapore Management University (SMU) as well as the Singapore Institute of Management
University (UniSIM).

With that as part of his résumé, Professor Cham does not mince words in this book and it is interesting to see what his journey was. This book tells of his trials and tribulations during his term where he played a huge role in transforming NTI to what NTU is today. The struggles are real and honestly depicted in the book. Key word to note here being honestly.

You can sense throughout the book the pressure on Professor Cham to perform yet he handled it with strife and with his head held high. What I appreciated was that even when he made a mistake, he admitted it clear as day in this book and showed how he learnt from it.

I thoroughly enjoyed this and I openly hinted for follow-ups regarding UniSIM and SMU. Hopefully, he will consider sharing his stories as he has tons of anecdotes that he tells in the style of a true storyteller.