Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine

Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine
Former names
  • Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States Government Medical School
    (1905-1921)
  • King Edward VII College of Medicine
    (1929-1949)
  • Faculty of Medicine, NUS
    (1949-2005)
Established 1905
Type Public
Parent institution
 National University of Singapore
Dean Yeoh Khay Guan
Location Kent Ridge, Singapore
Website medicine.nus.edu.sg

The Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine is the medical faculty of the National University of Singapore and one of three medical schools in Singapore. It is the oldest medical school in Singapore and Malaysia and boasts a list of distinguished alumni, including a Prime Minister of Malaysia, a President of Singapore, the first female Malay physician and notable Malaysian and Singaporean politicians.

History

The Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine was first established as the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States Government Medical School in 1905 to train physicians from the British colonies of present-day Singapore and Malaysia.[1] It was renamed King Edward VII College of Medicine in 1921, after receiving a donation from the Edward VII Memorial Fund[2] founded by Lim Boon Keng, and was housed at the heritage-listed College of Medicine and Tan Teck Guan buildings which are both currently owned by the Ministry of Health. The dental school was founded not long after.

During World War II, the College continued operating even with the Japanese Occupation of Singapore, but not without consequences. The first casualty was a fourth-year medical student based at Tan Tock Seng Hospital who was fatally wounded by Japanese shells during the Battle of Singapore. While his friends were burying him, they were spotted by Japanese soldiers and eleven were killed on the spot. The dead are commemorated by the SGH War Memorial.

In 1949 the KECM then merged with Raffles College, which specialized in the humanities and teacher training, to form the Singapore campus of the University of Malaya (UM). The medical school was essentially the Faculty of Medicine of UM and students in Malaysia wishing to study medicine would go to the Singapore campus. UM eventually split into UM (Kuala Lumpur) and the University of Singapore in 1962 and UM in Kuala Lumpur established its own medical school.

The medical school continued operating through the mergers of the various predecessor institutions which formed the present-day National University of Singapore. In 2005, NUS's centenary, it was named after Yong Loo Lin, following a $100 million endowment from the Yong Loo Lin Trust. The gift enabled the medical school to expand its infrastructure and facilities.[3]

Departments

The School comprises departments such as the Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies, Anaesthesia, Anatomy, Biochemistry, Diagnostic Radiology, Epidemiology and Public Health, Medicine, Microbiology, Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Ophthalmology, Orthopaedic Surgery, Otolaryngology, Paediatrics, Pathology, Pharmacology, Physiology, Psychological Medicine, and Surgery.

Admission and Programmes

The School uses the British undergraduate medical system, offering a full-time undergraduate programme leading to the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS). For Nursing, the Bachelor of Science (Nursing) (conducted by the Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies) is offered.

Affiliated Hospitals

Notable people

Alumni

King Edward VIII College of Medicine (1925-49)
Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States Government Medical School (1905-1921)

Faculty

See also

References

  1. ↑ Manderson, Lenore (2002). Sickness and the State: Health and Illness in Colonial Malaya, 1870-1940. Cambridge University Press. p. 15. ISBN 9780521524483.
  2. ↑ Heritage Places of Singapore. Marshall Cavendish International. 2011. p. 165. ISBN 9789814312950.
  3. ↑ History
  4. ↑ "First Malay woman doctor dies". The New Paper. 21 July 2014.
  5. ↑ "Former Presidents – Benjamin Sheares". istana.gov.sg.
  6. ↑ Biography of the Early Malay Doctors 1900-1957 Malaya and Singapore. Xlibris. 2012. ISBN 9781477159965.
Other

External Links