Grants and Writing Resources for Nanyang Technological University

NTU undergraduates won eight Global Winner awards across seven categories at the 2025 Global Undergraduate Awards, with winning papers in literature, linguistics, art history and theory, computer science, chemical and pharmaceutical sciences, nursing and the visual arts. The year before, NTU entries had taken five. Undergraduates who complete an 11-month URECA project with a faculty mentor receive a certificate carrying the title NTU President Research Scholar.

Undergraduate Research

Since 2004, the Undergraduate Research Experience on CAmpus (URECA) has paired undergraduates with a faculty mentor of their choice for an 11-month project running August to June. Full-time students in excellent academic standing, in their second year or later with at least one academic year left before graduation, can apply. The work earns 4 AUs toward the Broadening and Deepening Elective, graded pass/fail. Each student produces an abstract, a poster, a final research paper and a reflection, and those who finish receive a certificate carrying the title NTU President Research Scholar.

Strong posters can win awards at the Discover URECA Poster Exhibition & Competition. Some projects go further, and URECA keeps a list of journal articles co-authored by its students in titles such as PLoS ONE, Transport Policy and the Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series A.

Scholarships for Research Students

NTU's premier PhD scholarship is the Nanyang President's Graduate Scholarship, given by nomination to graduates and final-year students with Honours (Highest Distinction) or the equivalent. From January 2026 the monthly stipend is S$5,300 for Singapore citizens, S$4,800 for permanent residents and S$4,300 for international students, with tuition covered and no bond. Scholars also get up to S$5,000 per financial year for overseas conferences, S$500 a year for books and a one-time thesis allowance of S$600, for up to four years.

NTU's graduate scholarships page lists two more awards for research students, the Provost Graduate Award and the NTU Research Scholarship.

Writing and Communication Training

The Language and Communication Centre runs the LCC Communication Cube, a writing lab where trained peer tutors give free feedback on assignments, presentations, speeches and job or scholarship applications. Book an appointment through the Cube's page.

Every PhD student must meet a communication course requirement under the Graduate College's Communications / Writing Training Programme for PhD Students. Options include Academic Writing as Craft, Academic Writing in the Humanities & Social Sciences and Publishing in the Humanities & Social Sciences, and students can add one-on-one tutoring with specialist tutors at the Communication Cube. PhD students also present at the Three Minute Thesis symposium, which is compulsory for those admitted from AY2019 to AY2025 and voluntary from AY2026. The Graduate College also sponsors a free two-day Nature Masterclass, taught by Nature editors, for research students with a manuscript in progress.

Publishing and DR-NTU

NTU students must deposit their theses and Final Year Project reports in DR-NTU, the university's digital repository, following the library's deposit guide. Students may request an embargo of up to two years, or an exemption when confidential material can't be removed.

For journal articles, the library's APC Support agreements waive or discount open access fees for NTU-affiliated corresponding authors with publishers including ACM, Cambridge University Press and the Royal Society. Some waivers are marked fully utilised, so the guide's status list is the place to check.

If you'd like an editor's eye on a thesis chapter or a research paper before it goes out, we can help. See our Nanyang Technological University dissertation and thesis editing page, or write to editors@editorsforstudents.com.