Baby bye bye bye to Yale-NUS College! It seems like just yesterday that we were announcing the formation of a Yale University school in Singapore, known as Yale-NUS. Well, ten years have since sped by and we’re still writing about elite college admissions. Go figure. In fact, it seems we’ve outlasted Yale’s school in Singapore. As the New Haven, Connecticut-based institution recently announced, the National University of Singapore will merge Yale NUS with its University Scholars Program beginning in 2025. This merger will create a new and larger liberal arts college in Singapore and essentially spell the end of Yale’s experiment in the country. The newly merged school, after all, will not feature the Yale University name.

As Yale President Peter Salovey wrote in a message to the Yale community this week, “Yale takes great pride in the accomplishments of Yale-NUS College—a pioneering partnership between two leading universities to create a residentially based liberal arts college. In the eight years since the College admitted its first class, it has become one of the most highly selective institutions of higher learning in the world. Its innovative Common Curriculum has drawn wide attention and served as a model for further innovation at NUS as well as at other colleges throughout Asia…Given our great pride in Yale-NUS College and our love and respect for the faculty, students, and staff who compose its extraordinary community, we would have liked nothing better than to continue its development. We are very proud of what we have accomplished together. I want to offer my best wishes for the new college and express our gratitude for the generous support of the Government of Singapore in making it possible for us to partner in the creation of a model of liberal arts education that is regarded as one of the most innovative in the world—one whose DNA will live on, we trust, in new and exciting ways.”

And now that Yale is essentially closing shop in Singapore, it’s less likely that other elite universities will look to found colleges in the nation — or in other nations across Asia — in the next few years, particularly in light of the COVID-19 pandemic which has led many institutions to tighten their purse strings. But maybe our readers disagree with our forecast. What say our readers? Will other Ivy League schools be opening up campuses in the likes of Singapore over the next few years? Weigh in as we’re curious to hear what you’ve got to say!