Senior Associate
Centre for Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
48 Nanyang Avenue, HSS 04-25, SHHK Building, Singapore 639818
Tel. (65) 67906761
Fax (65) 67956525
E-mail: takoh@ntu.edu.sg

Prof. Koh Tai Ann (BA Hons; Ph.D., University of Singapore) was Dean, School of Arts, (1994- 2000)   responsible for administering and developing Nanyang Technological University (NTU)’s first ever Arts degree programme located at the National Institute of Education (NIE), an Institute of the University.

When NIE re-structured and became an autonomous institute and its four Schools therefore ceased being NTU Schools, she became Dean (Academic) 2000-2003, with oversight of Heads of Academic Groups, academic staff and quality of teaching. As Dean she remained a member of NTU’s Academic Board and served on NIE, NTU and Ministry of Education (MOE) committees.

In 2003, she was appointed NTU’s inaugural Dean of Students, setting up the Dean of Students’ Office, the Student Counselling Centre, the International Students’ Centre, and assisting the President to formulate and implement policies regarding student development, welfare, amenities, and activities. Among her other initiatives were a reform of the residential halls’ Resident Fellow and admission system giving residents a greater say; a report recommending a university-wide student welfare/wellness support system and a survey, “Year 1 & Year 2 Student Profiles and Staff Pedagogy at NTU” as part of NTU’s reform of the student teaching feedback process.

Appointed concurrently Professor at the then new School of Humanities and Social Sciences, she set up its new Division of English in 2003 regarding staffing and curriculum, and chaired NTU’s Broadening Curriculum Taskforce. She stepped down as a senior administrator in 2006 to return to teaching and research. Upon her retirement in 2008, she was invited to be a Senior Associate of NTU’s Centre for Liberal Arts and Social Sciences.

In recognition of her laying of the “foundations and support structure for English at NTU” and her “development and enhancement of literary studies in Singapore”, a Gold Medal in her name was established in 2008 by the English Division, awarded annually to outstanding English Literature students who plan to pursue careers in teaching and research in the subject.

She had begun her career as lecturer and senior lecturer at the Department of English at the former University of Singapore, 1971 – 1979, then was Associate Professor and Deputy Head, Department of English Language and Literature (ELL) at the National University of Singapore (NUS) 1980-1993, where she was thrice elected/re-elected as a non-professorial member of the Senate.

As the ELL Graduate Studies Coordinator at NUS, she set up the Department’s first Masters in English Literature by coursework, teaching on it till she left NUS for NIE/NTU in 1994.

At NUS she taught across the English Literature curriculum but mainly the poetry and prose of the Augustan period, satire, Practical Criticism, and critical theory. While at NUS (and later at NTU) she also created and taught new courses on Singaporean and SE Asian writing in English on which she has published extensively.  She has supervised numerous Honours academic research projects, Masters and PhD theses and been external examiner for MA and PhD theses from universities in the UK, Australia, and Malaysia in her areas of expertise.