Tisch School of Arts to Close Singapore School

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/19/world/asia/19iht-educbriefs19.html

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New York arts school closing Singapore campus

Facing budgetary problems, Tisch Asia , the Singapore campus of New York University’s Tisch School of Arts, has announced that it will cease operations.

“Tisch Asia has been a model of artistic and academic excellence, but it has also faced significant financial challenges that have required increasingly unsustainable subsidies,” Mary Schmidt Campbell, Tisch’s dean, said in a statement this month.

She said that Tisch would have given its Singapore subsidiary a cumulative total of more than 30 million Singapore dollars, or about $24.5 million, by September 2013.

The Singapore news media have reported that Tisch Asia also received financial assistance from the Singapore Economic Development Board, a state-affiliated investment promotion agency.

The Singapore school, which only offers M.F.A. degrees, opened with high hopes in 2007. The Economic Development Board had lured Tisch to Singapore to help turn the city-state into an education hub. The film director Oliver Stone served for a time as the school’s artistic director.

Tisch said that the Singapore campus would not cease operations before summer 2014 and that students who could not finish their coursework by that time could do so at N.Y.U. sites around the world. The university also has a campus in Abu Dhabi.

— KRISTIANO ANG

Section of library renamed to honor school’s donor

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology has renamed a portion of its library for Chevalier International Holdings, after its chairman, Chow Yei-ching, donated 20 million Hong Kong dollars to the school.

The Chevalier Learning Commons, which is currently open 22 hours a day, is planned to be open 24 hours a day during the next exam period in December, said Brenda Yau, a university spokeswoman. The Commons is a newly renovated section with multimedia tools, broadcast studios and areas where students can eat and chat. “This is different from a traditional library area, where students are told to keep quiet,” she said.

Dr. Chow’s latest donation, which is worth $2.5 million, was announced this month. He has been supporting various projects at H.K.U.S.T. since 1993.

— JOYCE LAU