The new University of the Arts Singapore (UAS), which will take in its first cohort of students in 2024, represents the natural extension of the work of several institutions. The School of the Arts (Sota), Singapore’s first national pre-tertiary specialised arts school for young people from 13 to 18, offers an integrated arts and academic curriculum that leads to recognised school-leaving qualifications. Sota’s distinction lies in its offering a dedicated development path for those who have interest and show early talent in the arts, and it provides a learning environment where both their artistic and academic potential can be realised best. Beyond Sota, at the college level, the Lasalle College of the Arts and the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts have created their distinct imprints on higher arts education in Singapore. Now, the two institutions have come together to set up the first university in Singapore to focus on the arts. UAS, which will be able to award degrees, will elevate arts training to the status of higher education, an area in which Singapore’s excellence is recognised widely.

The arts are important in themselves because they define the human experience by obliging both practitioners and audiences to encounter and reflect on the human condition. The arts do this particularly by compelling people with different points of view to empathise with those who are not like-minded or who inhabit different economic, ethnic or gender worlds. The higher study of the arts that UAS would make possible, would enhance the ability of Singaporeans to grapple with uncomfortable issues that have become a part of the global intellectual mainstream and which increasingly are a part of Singapore’s own social evolution.