Tan Tai Yong

Emeritus Professor Tan Tai Yong is the President of the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS). Before he joined SUSS, Professor Tan was President, Yale-NUS College. Prior to this, he held various academic and leadership appointments in the National University of Singapore (NUS). These included Vice Provost (Student Life), Dean, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, and Head of the History Department.

Professor Tan is Chairman of the Institute of South Asian Studies. He is a member of the National Library Board (NLB) and the National Heritage Board (NHB), where he is also Honorary Chairman of the National Museum, co-chair of the Founders’ Memorial Committee and Chair of the National Collection Advisory Panel.

From August 2018 to May 2019, Professor Tan was the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS)’ 6th S R Nathan Fellow for the Study of Singapore. He is also a member of the Ministry of Education’s Singapore Social Sciences Research Council. Professor Tan was a Nominated Member of Parliament from 2014 to 2015. He was awarded the National Day Administration (Silver) Award in 2009 and the Public Service Award in 2020.

A graduate of NUS, Professor Tan completed his doctorate at Cambridge University. Professor Tan specialises in South and Southeast Asian History and has published extensively on the history of India and Singapore.

RESEARCH INTERESTS 

• India and Southeast Asia
• History of Singapore
• Maritime Southeast Asia

BOOKS PUBLISHED

• Tan, T Y, Singapore Khalsa Association, Singapore: Times Books International, 1988.
• Tan, T Y and E S C Lee, Beyond Degrees: The Making of the National University of Singapore, Singapore: Singapore University Press, 1996.
• Tan, T Y and Gyanesh Kudaisya, The Aftermath of Partition in South Asia, London: Routledge, 2000 and 2002.
• Tan, T Y, The Garrison State Military, Government and Society in Colonial Punjab, New Delhi: SAGE, 2005.
• Tan, T Y, Creating Greater Malaysia: Decolonization and the Politics of Merger, Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies Publications, 2008.
• Tan, T Y, C G Kwa and D Heng, Singapore: A 700-Year History - From Early Emporium to World City, Singapore, 2009.
• Tan, T Y, D Heng, C G Kwa and P Borschberg, Singapore: Seven Hundred Years – A History of Singapore, Singapore, 2019.
• Tan, T Y, The Idea of Singapore: Smallness Unconstrained, Singapore, 2019.
• Tan, T Y and Gyanesh Kudaisya, Freedom & Partition: Momentous Events of 14-17 August 1947 in India and Pakistan, New Delhi : Primus Books 2023