Ngee Ann College (now Ngee Ann Polytechnic) upped the ante in a battle of wills with student protesters, by stopping classes for vacation and mandating good behaviour as a condition for resuming classes.

The move in July came after students boycotted classes for a month.

The college was set up by Teochew group Ngee Ann Kongsi in 1963 for Chinese-educated students. Housed in the Teochew Building at Tank Road, it offered language, business and technical courses in Malay, English and Chinese.

Students were upset over delays in plans to turn Ngee Ann into a university. Even so, the board of governors maintained that the issue would be left to a commission of inquiry. The commission later recommended that the college become a public institution to train technical and industrial technicians.

Renamed Ngee Ann Technical College in 1968, it became Ngee Ann Polytechnic in 1982.