Mrs Tan Suan Imm, BA [1960], BA Honours (History) [1961]

Born in Kedah, Mrs Tan Suan Imm attended university on a Singapore government teaching bursary and graduated from the then University of Malaya in Singapore with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in 1961 and a Diploma in Education from the University of Singapore in 1962. She went on to pursue a fulfilling 33-year career in education retiring as the principal of the Temasek Secondary School in 1995. She then did a brief stint in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as Deputy Chief of Protocol and served as an honorary counsellor in the Social Development Unit, Ministry of Community Development. She left full-time employment in 1997, and spends her time keeping fit, travelling, romancing the computer, and being actively engaged with NUS, her Alma Mater.

Earlier in her teaching career she worked as a part-time tutor in the History Department and later as a History school textbook writer on secondment from the Ministry of Education. She served as a non-resident Fellow of Eusoff College in Evans Road for several years and is currently a non-resident Fellow of Eusoff Hall in Kent Ridge. She is also a member of the Financial Aid, Bursary and Scholarship Committee of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.

In 2005, she played a key role in the successful signature drive to garner support among alumni for the return of Bukit Timah Campus to NUS. She was awarded the Distinguished Alumni Service Award by NUS in 2009, and is a member of the NUS Alumni Advisory Board which has been set up to harness the strength of the University’s global alumni in advancing NUS’ aspirations and building a spirit of alumni volunteerism.

When asked why she remains such a passionate alumnae she said, “I spent four very happy years in the Bukit Timah Campus of the then University of Singapore (1958-1962) as an Arts student on a teaching bursary, without which it would have been difficult, if not impossible in those days, for a small town girl from Kulim, Malaysia, to pursue her dream of a University degree and subsequently a fulfilling career in education. I would like to pay it forward by helping NUS reach out to alumni to return to our alma mater whenever they can to help build a culture of giving their time, talent and resources."

The History Department is proud to have Mrs Tan Suan Imm as our alumnae. Throughout the years, she has been supportive of the Department, regularly attending many of the activities and programmes. She was very involved in helping to organize a reunion in October 2003 for Raffles Professor K.G. Tregonning (Head of History Department from 1958-1967) who now resides in Australia. While Mrs Tan has and will continue to give much of her “time, talent and resources” to her Alma Mater, NUS, we think she will always have a special place in her heart for the History Department, for which she has many fond memories.