CEO's Forward


As soon as it moved to its permanent Woodlands campus in March 2006, Republic Polytechnic (RP) knuckled down to business as usual with clear objectives in mind. We would be a polytechnic with a difference. We aspired to be the leader in learning and pedagogical research. Our industry partners would find in us committed collaborators for their research and technology development work. The community would treasure us as their best friend and supporter. With the jewel of our campus, The Republic Polytechnic Cultural Centre, we intend to put RP on the radar screen of talented artistes to make Woodlands’ cultural scene the most vibrant in Singapore.

It has been gratifying to all of us at RP that staff and students work with a tremendous sense of pride and purpose from their first day at the new campus. The past year is a testimony to their unwavering determination to fly the RP flag high. Academically, the success of RP’s first International PBL Symposium underlined the appeal its One Day, One ProblemTM approach held to scholars and academics. The Symposium attracted over 500 participants, many of whom, from countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia and as far as the UK and US, turned up to share best practices, new developments and future trends.

Our Woodlands campus has become an integral part of not just the RP family, but the community in the northern region of Singapore. We are particularly proud of The Republic Cultural Centre (TRCC), which provides a vibrant platform for students, staff and members of the public to give voice and form to their artistic passion and talents. Housing a 1,200-seat theatre and smaller performance venues, the TRCC’s comprehensive facilities set the stage for a myriad of arts and cultural performances, from drama and music to magic and improvisation.

The active engagement of the community around us underscores the theme of this year’s Annual Report - Green Capsule. We are green in that we have an eco-friendly campus but in a larger sense, we are constantly connecting with the community to create enduring circles of mutual trust and support. Our participation in community collaborations such as Clean and Green Week and reading programmes for children help us give back to the community what we have received from them, abundant goodwill and affection.

Our efforts in promoting entrepreneurship received a boost with the opening of SUI! Retail shop – RP’s first retail business which serves as a student-run live-lab environment. Hands-on experience is still king and the shop is particularly beneficial to students of our new programme – the Diploma in Customer Relationship and Service Management.

RP students have, once again, shown their mettle in national competitions. A prime example was their laudable performance at the 2007 Singapore Robotic Games, edging out more experienced teams to clinch the bronze medal at one of the nation’s most prestigious engineering competitions. In sports, our boys made it to the Floorball finals for the first time against teams from various local tertiary institutions while our girls scored a historic win in the Poly-ITE Basketball championships. RP’s Dragonboat team made the biggest waves by winning at both the Poly-ITE games as well as inter-varsity games.

On the industry front, RP continued to pursue close collaborations with industry partners to establish itself as a leading R&D institution . For instance, with Agilent Technologies, a joint wireless solutions laboratory was set up for the design, modeling, simulation and testing of advanced wireless systems. For Agilent Technologies, this is the first joint lab with an Institute of Higher Learning and it showed the extent to which it has confidence in RP’s pedagogical soundness and research capabilities.

RP has also consistently demonstrated administrative excellence. In October 2006, we received the HEALTH Award – Gold, conferred by the Health Promotion Board to recognise organisations with commendable Workplace Health Promotion programmes. All these achievements have substantially raised the levels of motivation and enthusiasm among our students and staff, and will spur us towards accomplishing even more in the years ahead.

I wish to convey my sincere thanks to the Board of Governors for their continued guidance, and to the staff and students for their dedication and determination to establish RP as a polytechnic of distinction.

 

Prof Low Teck Seng
Principal & CEO
Republic Polytechnic