The foundation has made significant donations to power research and to support the inspirations of deserving students and families at a number of local and foreign educational institutions.
In March 2005, NUS received a landmark gift of $29 million from the Tan Chin Tuan Foundation. The gift spawned key initiatives to raise the quality of education and research in NUS. It included the set-up of five Tan Chin Tuan Centennial Professorships in various disciplines, and Tan Chin Tuan Visiting Professorships, to tap the expertise of visiting academics.
A founding benefactor of Yale-NUS College (YNC), Singapore’s first liberal arts college, the Tan Chin Tuan Foundation pledged an endowed gift of $5 million to kick-start two initiatives that would promote greater understanding about China and Chinese civilisation:
i)Tan Chin Tuan Professorship in China and Chinese Studies
ii)The Tan Chin Tuan Chinese Culture & Civilization Programme for undergraduates including full scholarships for 6 to 8 weeks Chinese language immersion in China and Taiwan.
iii)Artist-In-Residence (AIR) Programme
The gift also enabled NUS to embark on a series of collaborative programmes with Universiti Malaya (UM) in Kuala Lumpur such as the establishment of the Tan Chin Tuan Visiting Professorship in Malay Studies, the Joint Studio Programme between the NUS Department of Architecture and the Faculty of Built Environment at UM, an a co-teaching programme and joint student workshops between the faculties of Arts and Social Sciences of both universities.
