List of universities in Singapore

This is a list of universities in Singapore.

The oldest university in Singapore is the National University of Singapore, which was established in its current form in 1980, but has a history in tertiary education dating back to 1905. The university along with the Nanyang Technological University are research intensive and rank the highest in global university ranking publications. Newer universities have been established by the Singaporean Government since 2000 that specialise in various sectors and in applied learning. Singapore also has partnered and directly-operated campuses from foreign universities and other private institutions offering external degree programs from overseas institutions.

The university rankings included below are for reference only. Different university ranking publications use varying methodologies to rank universities     and cannot accurately calculate teaching performance, research quality and other abstract functions into a singular numerical composite. University ranking methodologies have been criticised  for their subjectivity, bias and lack of consideration for institutional specialisations. Institutional competitiveness reinforced by ranking publication results also discourages inter-institutional academic co-operation, non-anglophone thought and have been described a modern form of colonialism. The pursuit for higher rankings has also caused many universities globally to prioritise staff for research output over teaching skills and cause stress to high school students.

In March 2021, Minister for Education Lawrence Wong announced that Singapore’s first arts university would be established in an alliance between the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts and LASALLE College of the Arts, in a system akin to the University of the Arts, London. University of the Arts Singapore (UAS) was established in 2023 as a collegiate university with both colleges under the umbrella university and has been given degree-awarding powers independent of their previous foreign partners, where the long-distance degrees were issued through foreign universities. Singaporean citizens and permanent residents enrolled in the approved degree programmes at the university of the arts will pay subsidised fees like those at autonomous universities. The seventh local university in Singapore, it is the only publicly-funded private university other than the now-defunct SIM University in Singapore and also the only university of the arts with degree-conferring powers. It has two constituent colleges, the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts and the LASALLE College of the Arts.

Publicly-funded local universities
Singapore has seven local publicly-funded autonomous universities and a publicly-funded private university. Dates starred with an asterisk are the earliest antecedent institution.

Private education institutions
Private education institutions (PEIs) are regulated by the Committee for Private Education (CPE). They may be campuses of foreign universities and schools or operating under a partnership with other institutions to provide external degree programs. There are various accreditation and rating processes in Singapore including the EduTrust Certification Scheme.

Below is an incomplete list of institutions of higher learning that offer undergraduate and/or graduate programmes in Singapore.

Local campuses of foreign universities
The following private education institutions are local branches of foreign universities. Institutions are listed alphabetically in the order of country of origin and dates starred with an asterisk are the earliest antecedent institution.

Foreign universities operating under partnership with local universities
The following education institutions are operated under a partnership with local universities. Institutions are listed alphabetically in the order of country of origin. Dates starred with an asterisk are the earliest antecedent institution.

Local campuses of business schools and other institutions
This is a list of some non-local business schools and other institutions operating in Singapore.

Private institutions offering external degree programs
The following private education institutions offer external degree programmes (EDPs) with undergraduate and postgraduate degrees conferred by the institutions' partner universities.