Associate Professor Leong Ching
Vice Provost (Student Life)
I remember my first meeting in RC4 – with a group of student leaders who had an inspired take on the name of RC4. At the time, some new students were critical of a boring name which seemed to be just a number (after all, RC1, 2 and 3 had been renamed into names of donors or of trees).
“But why not think of it as RC-for? An RC for a better world, an RC for adventures, an RC for whatever that we can dream of,” the student leaders said.
And that as always been my heuristic for RC4 – a purposeful and imaginative striving. What has RC4 stood for in the past 10 years?
Ten years ago, NUS decided on a new component of education – residential living and learning. We built University Town – including residential colleges – where intellectual curiousity, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and multi-perspectival thinking would thrive, where students are challenged to develop vital life-long skills such as critical thinking, communications and strong writing skills, and the intellectual breadth and rigour to tackle the complex, inter-related challenges confronting the world today and of the future.
This vision came alive in the University Town College Programme and is nowhere more keenly evident than in the vibrant community we celebrate today – Residential College 4.
Established in 2014 with its inaugural batch of 62 students, RC4 has been a cornerstone of educational leadership in systems thinking. The college has consistently embodied its vision to nurture “leaders of change in a complex world”.
Notably, RC4 students achieved international acclaim by securing first runner-up and winning the Audience Choice Award at the 2021 Map the System global innovation competition organised by the University of Oxford. In addition, its students have co-authored 24 research publications on systems thinking and system dynamics in international peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings.
Looking ahead to 2024, RC4 is poised to deepen its commitment to innovation and entrepreneurship. The college’s new three-pronged strategy to fostering innovation within and out of the classroom, and through alumni mentorship, and the launch of a new design thinking and systems thinking course, “From Ideas to Pitches: Tech, Innovation & Entrepreneurship”, signifies its dedication to equip its students with skills and mindsets necessary for entrepreneurial success. Collectively, they lay the foundation for RC4's ambition to incubate 20 entrepreneurship student projects this year.
The college has established a strong student-initiated interest group culture, with more than 50 interest groups across sports, arts, lifestyle, intellectual interests, and community service.
Its students have left an indelible mark on the wider community – both local and abroad. The "CASA – Care. Accept. Share. Affirm" project has seen over 280 RC4 students mentor underprivileged students in Clementi flats, showcasing the college's ethos of social impact. As part of its STEER Himalaya programme, a group of RC4 students ventured to the Indian Himalaya to study its ecology and worked with local NGOs to launch a mobile platform to encourage conservation. They later went on to earn the prestigious NUS Alumni Start-up Catalyst Award 2020 from NUS Enterprise.
As part of its commitment to equip students with skills and mindsets to thrive in an ever-evolving world, the college launched a flagship informal learning programme in 2016, Cognitio. Students have the opportunity to engage with thought leaders through dialogue sessions, the likes of Minister Desmond Lee and Ambassador Bilahari Kausikan, and attend skill-building workshops curated for professional and personal growth.
In the past 10 years, RC4 has stood for innovation, inclusivity, and the belief in small systems with big hearts. Here's to another decade of RC4 – may your purpose always be bright and wonderful.
As they say, time flies when you’re having fun.
I was lucky to have gotten to know RC4 even before my official affiliation with it. Since 2017 (or was it even earlier?), I believe I had attended RC4’s formal dinner every year, thanks to the generous invitation by Prof Laksh, who was the College’s founding master and my predecessor. RC4 dinners were joyous occasions. They were also an impressive showcase of the many talents that the College’s students had. I had always thoroughly enjoyed them. Occasionally, friends from RC4 would tell me: “Oh, this student is from Computing; that one is from Engineering; and those are from Arts, Business, Law, etc.” Those experiences dispelled any prejudices I might have had – yes, I am ashamed to have had them – that Computing students did coding when they wanted to have fun, and I came away with the lasting impression that – wow! – RC4 students knew how to have fun.
In 2020, I became RC4’s second master, taking over an outstanding college from Prof Laksh. As I got to know RC4 students better, I realised that fun was just one part of the College’s makeup. Let me just name three other aspects.
First, learning permeates RC4. RC4 students are high caliber students, who take their studies very seriously. But I don’t just mean that. As part of the College’s relentless effort to support students’ well-being, in 2022, a group of RC4 residents, under the mentorship of RC4 Director of Student Life Dr Naviyn, applied Group Model Building using Systems Thinking to understand stress as a systems problem and explore solutions to alleviate residents’ stress levels. This resulted in the formation of Orcare, RC4’s peer support group. The group started with 15 peer supporters in AY2022-23. By AY2023-24, the group has swelled to 35 properly trained and highly dedicated peer supporters. What started as an intellectual exercise among fellow residents led to action with the aim of improving life in the College. This modus operandi of the feedback loop between living and learning exemplifies RC4 as a true living-and-learning community, and brings the College’s motto of “small systems, big hearts” to life.
Second, RC4 students are incredibly kind. While I experience this all the time, there was one instance that etched a very deep impression on me. A while ago, I witnessed how a group of students came to the aid of a fellow resident who got into a bit of a mess, literally. While everyone helped, two students in particular – C and VC – took it upon themselves to clean up the mess. Kudos to RC4 students!
Third, RC4 students are a prudent lot. I was a “COVID master” – I assumed the mastership while Singapore was starting its phased lifting of the circuit breaker measures. The COVID situation was precarious, and the prevalent measures kept fluctuating. Those were obviously difficult times for the College community. As a high-density living environment, the measures within RC4 were even more stringent. My colleagues and I were apprehensive about explaining the measures to the residents, and were relieved to find that they all understood the reasons. In fact, some of the student leaders stepped forward to help explain to other residents. The 2022 Inter-College Games were allowed to proceed, though with restrictions, while everyone prayed that the Games would not cause a spike of infections. Those prayers were answered. At one point, one student, W, texted me: “RC4 is doing well, Prof, both on and off court.” In RC4, we are able to sail through many challenges because the students are generous in working through issues with the college administration.
Since becoming its master in 2020, I have learnt a great deal from the students – as well as my colleagues – in RC4. Whether it is through fun, learning, kindness or prudence, I grow with RC4 and count on your support every day. I hope I do not let you down, or let Prof Laksh down for passing such a great college to my hands.
As the College reaches its 10th anniversary milestone, I hope that it will continue to bring joy to those who grace our dinners and events; that our students will go out and make a positive difference in the world by virtue of their intellectual acumen and big hearts; and that RC4 students (and alumni) will continue to find support in the College and take pride in their ownership of it. Way to go, RC4!
Before I end, let me thank all those who have helped RC4 – and there have been many, many. Thanks to colleagues from Housing, Emergency & Security, Student Affairs, HR, Finance, IT, Provost’s Office and other NUS offices on whom we could always rely for support and guidance. Thanks to the many speakers and visitors who have inspired us and enriched our lives in the College tremendously. Thanks to our founding rector, Prof Choo Chiau Beng, who has been unstinting in his support and interest in the College. Thanks to my fellow hostel masters for the camaraderie and advice. Thanks to all friends of the College for being there. And special thanks to Prof Florence Ling and Prof Leong Ching for their guidance and mentorship to me.
And yes, I am having a lot of fun, and just hope time doesn’t fly quite so fast.
Associate Professor Peter Pang
Master of RC4
Professor Choo Chiau Beng
Founding Rector of RC4
RC4 started ten years ago as the third Residential College for undergraduates at the University Town, NUS. RC4’s theme is a holistic view of the world using Systems Thinking. Like all colleges offering the University Town College Programme (UTCP), the aim is to enable students to think, speak and write better, so that they can tackle the complex, inter-related challenges confronting the world today. RC4 offers courses in Systems Thinking and System Dynamics. There is also a wide range of elective multidisciplinary courses, including those on self improvement, personal development and leadership. There is also a vibrant and varied suite of informal learning programmes and co-curricular activities. In the past ten years, over 2400 full time students and some 700 exchange students have come through the College.
Our founding Master, Professor Lakshminarayanan Samavedham, stayed for six years before proceeding to be Director of the NUS Institute for Applied Learning Sciences and Educational Technology. The current Master is Professor Peter Pang, former Associate Provost and Dean of Students. Some 30 residential and non-residential Fellows have also served at RC4.
I’d like to thank the Masters, the Fellows, the staff, the very capable and committed student leadership, especially the Resident Assistants and the College Students’ Committee, as well as all the student residents for making RC4 a very high-spirited and friendly community. I am confident that RC4 will continue to contribute to enriching the lives of all the residents in the future.
Congratulations to RC4 for reaching the important milestone of ten meaningful and productive years!
It is great to know that Residential College 4 is celebrating a significant milestone – it turns 10 this year. As someone associated with the College in its initial years, I wish to extend my congratulations to the College community and I have no doubt that the College will grow leaps and bounds in all its domains – learning, living and making an impact on the Singapore society and beyond.
This is also an opportunity for me to thank the many people that came together to start and build the College – the Senior Management, the various campus units that supported us, our Rector, office bearers of the College Students’ Committees (CSC), residential assistants, members who ran and participated in the academic and non-academic interest groups – they all played a vital role in shaping the College to what it is now. It was a great blessing for me to work with our Rector Prof. Choo Chiau Beng who steadfastly supported and promoted the College in innumerable ways. Many members of the NUS Senior Management helped me to grow professionally during my days at RC4 – chief among them are Prof. Bernard Tan (Senior Vice-Provost), Prof. Erle Lim (former Vice-Provost) and Prof. Florence Ling (former Vice-Provost). Prof. Ling (who I directly reported to) cares deeply about the growth of her colleagues – she has aided the professional progress of many colleagues who were in the units that she led admirably. RC4 benefited a great deal from her divine leadership (a rare form of leadership that does not hesitate to promote people to a level higher than herself). A special shout out to staff and faculty members of the College, both past and present, who contributed their very best to make the college community inclusive and vibrant. The faculty members taught above and beyond their stipulated workload and doubled up as Directors and Residential Fellows. Some of them continue their distinguished work at the College while others have left to make their mark in other organizations – my gratitude is hereby conveyed to all of them. Our student body should be congratulated for the College being unofficially recognized as having the least number of troubles and undesirable incidents. This is a testimony to the cooperation offered by students to the charismatic and tirelessly working Director of Student Life and the highly dedicated Residential Fellows at RC4.
Many of us may not know why RC4 does not have a real name like the other NUS residential colleges. Originally, the UTown residential colleges were named after trees native to this region. Our College was named “Khaya” in that era while the other colleges had names like Tembusu, Angsana, and Cinnamon. The panels in our fire command room at Level 1 of RC4 still display the name Khaya. Later, the name Khaya was disfavored (as Khaya was deemed to be a parasitic tree) and removed from use even before the college started. The name RC4 was meant as a place holder until a good tree name was proposed and approved or a donor came by. As the inaugural Master, I proposed to name the College as Kalpa – after Kalpataru, a wish-fulfilling divine tree that is mentioned in many oriental texts. I thought the name sounded close to Khaya and I thought the College would/should provide its students with any reasonable wishes they might have. My proposal did not find favor with the pilot batch of students. When students proposed a few names (e.g. the name Tessera was proposed by the 5th CSC of the College), I forwarded it to NUS Senior Management but they were not taken up because there was a high chance for a donor to contribute to the College and have his/her choice of name for the College (subject to approval). Understandably, too many name changes were not desirable. I am told that the College came close to getting donor contributions a couple of times, but they didn’t materialize and the name RC4 remained. Over time, the College community got used to the name and used it in creative ways for its internal activities (e.g. interest groups) and outreach efforts.
When we started the making of RC4, we had to carefully think of the Culture, Strategy and Talent aspects for the College. The Culture domain was perhaps the most important. Our vision was to have an inclusive, kind and forward looking community. We used every opportunity to have this vision be observed and absorbed by the College community – in our selection processes (for student intake, Residential Assistants, faculty, staff), while resolving issues that emerged among the student body from time to time, in recognition of the work done by people for the College, in our community outreach activities, in courses offered at the College, etc. Ours was a “chill” college where we did our best to make each student feel included and valued.
For our education strategy, we carefully picked Systems Thinking and System Dynamics (STSD) Modeling as the intellectual base to get the students focus on grand/complex challenges that the world was getting into – health, energy, environment, food and population, to name a few. We were careful to not go overboard with the mathematics or programming aspects as we were very cognizant of the heterogeneous characteristics of the student body we were dealing with. I must also point out that the College was really interested on teaching STSD skills to our student body from non-Engineering and non-Science fields as we felt this would foster a better prepared policy-making pool of individuals for Singapore and the region in the 21st century. Unfortunately, the perception created was just the opposite – RC4 was seen as a College that was aligned with STEM disciplines. I have to admit that many of my friends and colleagues within the NUS system (including members of the senior management) would question me (directly or indirectly) about choosing a “hard” systems theme for the College – it continued throughout the 6 years I spent at the College. I had to spiritedly defend the idea each time. No other college master would have been questioned about their college curriculum as many times as I was. This is despite the strong acknowledgment around the world for the benefits of systems thinking teaching at K-12 levels and for its success at MIT (USA) and many universities in USA and Europe. At times, I had openly stated that the University should declare RC4 as a College that would admit non-STEM students only!!
Even at its very beginning, RC4 also wanted to have courses on innovation, community and entrepreneurship (ICE) at RC4 but we did not want to spread ourselves too thin at that point of time – I understand that these topics are gaining attention these days but I maintain that the STSD base would enable students to do better in their community engagement and entrepreneurial ventures.
On the talent angle, we did not go for things like serious interviews or group discussions to select the cream of students for the College. Our principle was that anyone good enough to get into NUS was good enough to be at RC4. Of course, we had to balance the number of male and female students as well as reflect the composition of NUS student body at the College. We did look at the essays written by students and had interviews with the applicants as part of our application process for the panel to assign scores and rank the students for selection but I bet that we did not project an elitist image for the College at any point in time. In our early years, we had a difficult time in attracting women students from the arts and social sciences domain but, with help from several enthusiastic women RC4 alumna, we were able to do better in succeeding years. For faculty selection, the emphasis was on faculty members’ “availability” for students, their interest in teaching and their own “learnability”. RC4 had the most faculty recruited exclusively for the College (as opposed to joint appointments). Later on, the College had some joint appointments and adjuncts, to enrich the course offerings in areas such as Internet of Things, Mindfulness, Macroeconomics, etc.
One of my unrealized dreams for RC4 was that I had hoped for a closer partnership with LKYSPP – the globally recognized prestigious public policy school within the NUS system. We had hoped that our students with systems thinking and system dynamics modeling background would be able to participate in research projects with LKYSPP faculty and be able to become strong public policy makers and shape the future of Singapore. I tried a few times to create some formal connections but they didn’t materialize.
Our College is still young and it is in the hands of a leadership that has the interest of students’ wholesome development at its core. There is no doubt that the College will break new ground and in the process re-invent itself by throwing out some of the outdated ideas and components. I wish the College the best as it re-invents itself in the years to come. Onward, RC4!
Associate Professor Lakshminarayanan Samavedham
Founding Master of RC4
Professor John Sterman
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Sloan School of Management
Congratulations to NUS RC4 on its 10th anniversary! I fondly recall visiting with you all back in 2018, hosted by Prof Laksh, during which my wife and I had a chance to meet faculty and students and learn about the great work you all are doing. What stood out, besides the warm hospitality and friendship, was the way RC4 has embedded system dynamics and systems thinking into the curriculum and educational experience. I cannot overstress how important this is. So many universities continue to pursue the reductionist program of ever-finer specialization. Though often leading to deep and useful knowledge, the reductionist program also narrows the boundaries of our mental models, leading to policy resistance and new problems.
This is not just a problem for universities. Businesses and governments also divide the world into departments and ministries and try to solve critical problems in isolation. But not RC4. You all understand that we don’t have financial problems, social problems, people problems, and community-relations problems — we just have problems. And you know that solving them requires a holistic approach, grounded in evidence and the scientific method.
Congratulations again on successfully integrating systems thinking and system dynamics into a wonderful, rigorous educational experience!
