Professor Joanne Roberts appointed third President of Yale-NUS College
Since its inception, Yale-NUS College has placed a great emphasis on building up a strong team of leaders. Their capable leadership has ensured that the College continues to offer its unique model of liberal arts and sciences education, nurturing well-rounded graduates ready to tackle today’s local and global issues. Today, the College’s Common Curriculum is widely recognised as an innovative set of courses providing a firm foundation for interdisciplinary education, and students, faculty, and staff have created a remarkable community of living and learning.
Yale-NUS College President Tan Tai Yong at the College’s Performance Hall.
Come July 2022, Yale-NUS College President and Professor of Humanities (History) Tan Tai Yong will be handing the leadership reins to Professor Joanne Roberts after completing his full five-year term as the second President of Yale-NUS College. Prof Roberts has been overseeing the academic and student programming at the College as Executive Vice President (Academic Affairs) [EVP (AA)] for the past three years. She also served as its Dean of Faculty before that and was the College’s inaugural Associate Dean of Faculty (Faculty Development).
Deeply involved in the College since its early planning days, President Tan served as the co-chair of the joint Yale and NUS committee that hired the inaugural faculty members in the humanities and helped shape the Common Curriculum. In October 2014, he took on the role of EVP (AA) at Yale-NUS before taking the helm as President on 1 July 2017. President Tan has led the College admirably, and together with a highly capable faculty and staff, has made Yale-NUS an outstanding liberal arts college.
Under his leadership, 90 per cent of graduates from our first four cohorts have found employment within six months of completing their final examinations. With 50 per cent of our science majors and an average of 13 per cent of our students pursuing graduate studies directly after graduation at leading institutions such as Harvard University, Stanford University, the National University of Singapore and Yale University. President Tan’s strong leadership has also held the College steady through many challenging events, most recently during the tumultuous time of the COVID-19 pandemic.
President Tan said, “My work with Yale-NUS College in the past decade has been extremely fulfilling – from recruiting inaugural Yale-NUS faculty and shaping the signature academic programme of the College, to working with remarkable colleagues and students who embody the Yale-NUS ethos and spirit. Yale-NUS College has greatly demonstrated the value of an interdisciplinary, immersive liberal arts and sciences model for Singapore. It has produced many cohorts of outstanding graduates who have used their broadened perspectives and critical thinking skills honed from the Common Curriculum, and cultural sensitivities, and empathy developed from years of residential living to serve their communities in Singapore and around the world.”
An esteemed public economist, Prof Roberts did her undergraduate training at the University of Waterloo and her graduate work at Queen’s University in Canada. She has served as a member of the Executive Committee of the Canadian Economic Association, President of the Canadian Economics Women’s Network, and co-editor of the Canadian Journal of Economics. Prior to joining Yale-NUS as Associate Dean of Faculty (Faculty Development) in 2017, she taught at the University of Toronto, and the University of Calgary. She was also a Senior Visiting Fellow at the National University of Singapore in 2011 and 2015, and a visiting Professor with Yale-NUS in 2015. At Yale-NUS, Prof Roberts has been overseeing all academic and student programming, including admissions and financial aid, curriculum, research, experiential learning and student support. She also worked closely with the faculty and staff to review the College’s signature Common Curriculum and experiential programmes, refine the residential experience, and enable faculty research and development.
Through her tireless engagement efforts, Prof Roberts has established strong relationships for the College, bringing in a robust pipeline of visiting professors and establishing deep ties with Yale and NUS. This has resulted in many joint initiatives, the most recent being a partnership with the NUS Faculty of Engineering to offer the Yale-NUS minor in Innovation and Design to our students. With her warm and empathetic personality, mentorship programmes, pathways for growth and mental wellness have been matters close to her heart. Since she took over as EVP (AA), formalised pathways to groom and grow junior faculty were established. Under her leadership, Yale-NUS has now hired a full suite of faculty comprising leading academics across the sciences, social sciences and humanities. Within the residential community, different layers of support have been built so that students not only have access to mental health resources, but also learn skills such as adopting a growth mindset, purposefulness in college and cultivating optimism.
The members of the Yale-NUS Governing Board unanimously voted to appoint Professor Roberts as the College’s new President from 1 July 2022. Shared Mdm Kay Kuok, Chair of the Yale-NUS Governing Board, “The entire Governing Board is delighted that Joanne has accepted this appointment. We are confident that she will capably lead the College during the next three years, ensuring that we provide the Yale-NUS experience to all our students and making sure that Yale-NUS is supported in the transitional years ahead.”
Professor Joanne Roberts at the Yale-NUS College campus. Image by Alethia Low for Yale-NUS College.
On taking up the appointment as President, Prof Roberts notes that she has big shoes to fill in succeeding the sterling work of both President Tan and inaugural President Pericles Lewis. While changes are ahead for the College, she is confident that the Yale-NUS community’s impact will continue to be evident.
“I am honoured to lead this incredible community in the years ahead. Yale-NUS College has been punching above its weight despite its small stature in the past decade. Our students and graduates have demonstrated their spirit of adventure and tenacity, securing amazing jobs and fellowships after graduation, and creating positive change within their communities. Our diverse faculty and staff have also been instrumental in enabling the Yale-NUS community to be dynamic and forward-looking. I am excited to continue this good work, alongside our dedicated community members, to ensure the continued success of Yale-NUS and making sure its legacy continues beyond the end of my term. I thank President Tan Tai Yong for entrusting me with something so precious and his many years of guidance and leadership,” she said.
In response President Tan shared, “She has improved the academic programmes, tenure processes and refined the residential experience immeasurably since she joined us in 2017. As I hand over stewardship of this remarkable college to Professor Roberts, I am confident that our students will continue to benefit from her strong leadership and the extraordinary Yale-NUS experience in the coming years.”
Some key priorities that Prof Roberts has identified for the next few years include ensuring that students continue to have the full educational, cocurricular and residential experience at Yale-NUS, providing robust support for the Yale-NUS community during this transition period as the New College is being established, and maintaining close ties with the College’s stakeholders. In particular, she will be working closely with the Yale-NUS community to ensure the preservation of the impact and legacy of the College. Prof Roberts is also chairing the New College’s Common Curriculum Working Group which looks into distilling the essence of the Yale-NUS and University Scholar’s Programme’s education models to form the foundation of the New College’s common curriculum.
Having spent the past four years immersed within the Yale-NUS community, Prof Roberts has had some very memorable moments at the College, “Spotting a python on a tree while heading across campus seems so surreal. I am really amazed by the greenery and wildlife we have on campus, and I hope to be able to interact more with everyone on campus. My family and I are also looking forward to even more spontaneous run-ins with students, faculty and staff, meaningful conversations and hopefully, attending more community-led events in future.”
Prof Roberts is immensely proud of the College’s achievements and intends to continue advancing the College in the coming years. She added, “We’ve built an extraordinary community of learning and our Yale-NUS community members have gone far and wide to drive positive change in different areas. I am confident that the Yale-NUS legacy will persevere and our graduates will continue to display the ability to synthesise knowledge and find solutions that cut across different disciplines in order to tackle the pressing issues of the day.”
