Yale University has done something that no other Ivy League school has attempted: built a new version of itself halfway around the world, in Singapore.
A year and a half ago, Yale accepted its first class of freshmen at this brand new university, a joint venture between Yale and the well-respected National University of Singapore. The goal is to create a new generation of leaders for Asia’s companies and governments. And what better institution for the job than Yale? Among the alumni of Yale’s leafy New Haven, Conn., campus are three recent U.S. presidents — George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George H.W. Bush — three sitting Supreme Court justices; and top business leaders, including Blackstone ’s Stephen Schwarzman, Liberty Media ’s John Malone, and PepsiCo ’s Indra Nooyi.
“The idea is that the Singapore program should be producing leaders in whatever sector of society they work in,” says Yale President Peter Salovey. In his view, the success of Yale’s Singapore experiment will be judged years from now by the success of its graduates. “Do they go on to the best graduate and professional programs? Do employers say they find these students articulate, creative, capable of teamwork? Those are some of the outcome measures,” says Salovey, adding, “I have a lot of optimism.”