Announced in March of 2013, the Global Studies major at NUS was conceived as response to the pressing need for an interdisciplinary approach to understand the multifaceted consequences of globalization. Global Studies is a transformative field of inquiry established in the last half century that scrutinizes the far-reaching impacts of globalization across political, economic, social, and cultural spheres.

Our Global Studies program was created by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences with the goal of introducing a major that would keep FASS relevant and attract top students from Singapore and the world. With NUS having strong exchange connections with universities abroad, we aim to train students to look at all problems with a global mindset and to approach all problems from multidisciplinary perspective.

Initially, we began offering Global Studies as a minor to a pioneering group 45 students. The first batch of majors of over 150 students successfully launched the full-fledged degree program, completing one full academic year in May 2014. Today, the Global Studies major is popular with students looking for globally-oriented interdisciplinary training, and with exchange students given our numerous linkages and connections with similar program throughout the world.

A capstone to the major is the 2-course sequence of Task Force to be completed in the final year. As a graduation requirement, students work in groups under the supervision of faculty and industry mentors to envision solutions to policy-based questions. Task Force encourages a practical and hands-on approach to problem solving, while it builds lasting connections among groupmates and industry mentors. Many of our graduates eventually end up working in the organisations they collaborated with during Task Force and stay in touch with their groupmates after graduation.