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The National University of Singapore (NUS) made artificial intelligence a formal part of student life. All students, faculty, and staff are set to receive access to ChatGPT Edu from August 31. At the same time, every new undergraduate will have to complete a compulsory generative AI course during the first two weeks of the academic year.
The university announced the initiative as part of a partnership with OpenAI, saying the program is intended to help students build practical skills for using AI in education and future workplaces.
Under the partnership, NUS students, faculty and staff will receive access to ChatGPT Edu, an edition of ChatGPT designed for universities and colleges. More advanced features will initially be tested in selected courses before being introduced more broadly where the university believes they can support teaching and learning.
NUS said it does not plan to depend on a single AI provider. The university intends to work with multiple technology companies so students can gain experience with different AI tools. The approach also aims to make access more equitable, since premium platforms can otherwise be expensive for individual students.
Students studying subjects where AI is central to their field, such as computing, will be able to access more advanced tools through relevant courses and activities. NUS students already have access to Microsoft Copilot through the university's Microsoft 365 subscription.
“The core business of a university is really to develop the human, not to develop the AI,” said NUS deputy president (academic affairs) and provost Aaron Thean.
The bigger change for incoming students is the introduction of a compulsory module called ‘Applied Generative AI: From Prompting to Evaluation.’ The course combines three hours of online lectures with embedded quizzes and a two-hour in-person workshop. More than 7,700 students entering NUS this year began the course in July, and they are required to complete the online material and workshop within the first two weeks of the semester.
The university said the module will teach students how to use AI tools effectively for learning, assignments, internships and their eventual careers. It is also part of NUS' wider plan to ensure graduates develop practical AI fluency rather than simply becoming familiar with individual tools.
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NUS is also preparing resources for faculty members. The university plans to provide ready-to-use tools that lecturers can adapt for their classes, reducing the need for instructors to develop AI-based teaching methods from scratch.
For NUS, the strategy is about making AI access part of the university's broader learning infrastructure while allowing individual schools and courses to decide where advanced tools add value. The initiative reflects a wider shift in higher education: instead of treating generative AI only as a challenge to academic integrity, institutions are increasingly trying to teach students how to use the technology responsibly and effectively.
NUS' decision could therefore be a reference point for other universities deciding how deeply the technology should be integrated into undergraduate education. With baseline access for its entire community and compulsory AI training for freshmen, the university is moving from simply allowing its use to making AI literacy part of the student experience.
