SINGAPORE -- The National University of Singapore (NUS), known for its innovative approach to education, has succeeded in keeping on-campus classes mostly open during the COVID-19 pandemic by finding clever ways to keep the deadly virus at bay.

Since the pandemic began more than a year ago, the school has suspended classes only during April to June last year, when the government implemented a partial lockdown.

One person who has played a key role in the university's antivirus efforts is NUS President Tan Eng Chye. To keep students and faculty safe, Tan has come up with a string of measures, including zoning restrictions that assign students to different areas of campus, and testing dormitory sewage for traces of the virus.

But even with these safeguards in place, the university's recent decision to cancel its long-planned in-person commencement highlights the difficulties educational institutions face during the pandemic.

"The current situation is very fluid and the outlook is uncertain," Tan wrote in a note to staff and students on May 20. "As such, I have shared with both the Class of 2020 and the Class of 2021 that the University can no longer hold in-person Commencement ceremonies for the two cohorts, which were scheduled from 17 June to end July 2021."

The move followed the government's announcement the day before that all primary, secondary and junior college students would move to full home-based learning due to a spike in COVID-19 cases.

"The decision to move to online ceremonies was not made lightly," wrote Tan, who was eager to hold an in-person graduation ceremony. NUS was not able to do so last year because of the pandemic.

The university had planned a series of commencements. The idea was to divide about 69,000 people -- a total of 23,000 graduating students from the Class of 2020 and the Class of 2021 plus their parents -- into groups of 750 people and grant degrees three times a day over a month or so.

Graduation is not only the last big milestone for university students and their parents, but also an important symbol for NUS, which stresses the importance of face-to-face interaction in education.

NUS President Tan Eng Chye poses in front of notable alumni.

Tan has been grappling with the novel coronavirus since late January last year. He was told by a colleague at the time that something serious was happening in China, prompting him to cut short his trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

On his way back to Singapore, he decided to bring home around 50 NUS students studying in China. He eventually told all NUS students abroad to come home, as the COVID-19 pandemic continued to rage around the world.

Tan worked to keep in-person classes going despite the pandemic, gathering and analyzing information daily through a WhatsApp group in which the deans of all faculties and senior officials participate.

He insisted on maintaining on-campus learning for classes with fewer than 50 students, saying, "It is important to continue to have that face-to-face interaction because it's not as effective, as far as learning is concerned, to be fully online."

NUS students on a campus lawn before the pandemic: The university split its three campuses into five zones to restrict contact among students during the outbreak. (Photo courtesy of NUS)

To keep the coronavirus off campus, NUS first divided its three campuses into five zones to minimize interaction among students for about six months after the resumption of in-person classes in June last year.

All students, faculty and staff entering and leaving university buildings are monitored using Wi-Fi and an on-campus app. If people are in a zone different from the one assigned to them for more than 30 minutes, the app tells them to return to their area immediately.

While the Singapore government spearheaded efforts to keep track of people entering and leaving offices and commercial complexes, NUS promptly developed and adopted such measures on campus by themselves.

In December last year, NUS also introduced a system to check sewage at dormitories for signs of infection. After low levels of COVID-19 viral material were found at one dormitory in March, all 400 or so residents were quarantined and tested for infection. All tests came back negative.

Tan shrugs off praise for the system, saying, "It's actually very easy. I would say most universities which have an engineering department can do it." But not many universities can act so quickly and decisively to contain a crisis. According to Tan, ever since the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003, NUS has been ready form a crisis management team at a moment's notice.

A student lounge on the NUS campus after the semester's end in June. The university has worked to maintain in-person classes as much as possible.

Besides its focus on maintaining face-to-face instruction, NUS works to offer career support to students. NUS is known for its NUS Overseas Colleges (NOC) -- decades-old internship programs aimed at helping students develop entrepreneurial skills at startups in such places as Silicon Valley, Beijing and Israel. During the pandemic, however, many students had to return home. To help them complete their courses, NUS arranged internship programs with more than 100 domestic companies.

Biomedical engineering major Jeremy Ong was one such intern. He went on the NOC program to Stockholm in mid-January 2020, only to be forced to return home two months later. Before his internship, Ong worked with fellow students on a project to train doctors and medical students using virtual reality technology. His internship at a health care startup in Sweden was something he could not skip. When his stint was disrupted due to the COVID, NUS offered him a referral, helping him secure another internship opportunity as a project manager with a Singaporean startup.

After graduating from NUS in June, Ong plans to set up a VR-assisted doctor-training business this year. "The whole program, both in Stockholm and in Singapore, opened my eyes. It was really an experience. I felt like If I didn't go for NOC, I wouldn't get it in school. It was something only NOC provides," he said.

Jeremy Ong, right, plans to launch a medical device startup with his fellow students later this year. (Photo courtesy of Jeremy Ong)

NUS now offers on-campus internships to students who fail to land a job. Amid the worst economic environment since Singapore gained independence, only 75% of last year's graduates found work, down from 90% before the pandemic. Still, NUS managed to fill the gap with internship programs and government assistance. The university also set up a fund to help financially strapped students whose parents lost jobs due to the pandemic.

In early May, Tan said NUS continued to operate at "60%." It will not be able to reopen NOC and its student exchange program when the next term starts in August.

"We feel our students have to be exposed to real problems. The experiential component is harder to replicate," Tan said. "That's why we are more eager to make sure that we send our NOC students out first."

Tan cited three key elements for university education in the 21st century: lifelong education, a broad intellectual foundation and more interdisciplinary teaching and learning.

NUS constantly adjusts its curriculum to meet the needs of the times. Starting in August, for example, it will allow engineering students to take classes in the school of design and environment, and vice versa. There is still no end in sight for COVID-19, but NUS is already looking beyond the pandemic.