When then Minister of Education Lawrence Wong announced in Parliament in March last year that a university of the arts would be formed from an alliance of two arts colleges, the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (Nafa) and the Lasalle College of Arts, the Government took a leap of faith to stake a place for Singaporeans in a rapidly evolving future economy and society.

The establishment of the University of the Arts Singapore (UAS) is a statement about how we understand the world in the coming decades and how we continue to prepare our people for these uncharted changes. Facing this future, we need to harness all types of knowledge, skills and sensibilities and call upon greater imagination and creativity.