I am an alumni of NTU writing this to express things off my chest, editors feel free to edit the text as necessary. I visited the NTU Open House and checked out the School of Biological Sciences booth as I need to ask some enquiries about one of their new programmes. I was next in the queue to speak to a student ambassador who happened to know me from other settings and appeared to have a personal vendetta against me for reasons known to her. When it was my turn to engage the student ambassador to ask my questions, she suddenly backed away without a word in an unprofessional manner, without even offering to direct me to another student ambassador. As a result, I had to take much trouble to queue behind another group and speak to another student ambassador which was much hassle, and the other student ambassador was also not fully equipped to address my enquiries and took much trouble to eventually direct me to a staff. This ambassador, Tay Jia Wen, is a well-regarded model student of the School of Biological Sciences, who was once featured by the school on their social media platforms for "[taking] the global stage at the IHEA 2025 World Congress in Bali" indicating a remarkable achievement in her research work in health economics which was worthy of boosting the school's image. This is in direct contrast to myself, who has had multiple records of misconduct and undesirable feedback from peers, staff, and faculty during my undergraduate candidature at the same school. I attempted to raise the feedback to Ms Hua Wen Hui, a staff of the school who manages the student ambassadors of outreach events including open houses, who initially promised that she would speak to the student and get back to me. As a precautionary measure knowing that the staff is unlikely to follow through with her promise given the past bad blood between myself and the school, I attempted to open the conversation over email directed to both the student and the staff on the same day. My email was then responded to by the Associate Chair (Students) of the school, Assoc Prof Tan Suet Mien, with no apology for the student unprofessional behaviour but instead excusing such behaviour from "student ambassadors [who] generously volunteer their time to support the school" and are therefore "fully entitled to step away", and dismissing my grievances claiming that "another ambassador was able to assist [me] promptly" even when it was clearly written in my initial email that "I had to take an extra hassle to look for another student ambassador who then took some time to eventually refer me to a staff". In response, I confronted Prof Tan Suet Mien's manner of handling my situation, expressing that although "student ambassadors are entitled to fully step away, but the least they can do is to politely tell me that they will get another ambassador to attend to me, which is what [the student] did not do", and that this is not how the school should "teach [their] students to conduct their frontline roles, regardless paid or not", especially when the student "is not just an ordinary student, she is an esteemed student role model whom [the school] has always been proud of featuring in all the social media channels". I expressed additionally my concern that "the school's preference is to justify all actions of such students instead of upholding them to high enough standards to correct them when they make a mistake". Prof Tan Suet Mien responded again to my email promptly, appearing to "understand [my] concerns and appreciate [me] bringing them up", and offered to "meet with [me] to discuss the issue", asking Ms Hua Wen Hui to help to arrange the meeting, which she did not respond for some time. After almost a week has passed, I attempted to send them another reminder that I am waiting for Ms Hua Wen Hui to follow up, at the same time reminding them about what I have been mentioning in my earlier email about speaking to the major news outlets to make this public as a last resort while I am giving them the chance to settle the matter with me appropriately. Instead of receiving a response from her or Prof Tan Suet Mien, I received an email from Acting Dean of the College of Science, Prof Shunsuke Chiba, who expressed that "after careful consideration, [all parties] believe a written response is the most appropriate way to address this matter" and "[they] consider this matter resolved", without offering any apology for any of the actions concerned. Prof Shunsuke Chiba had a past working relationship with me as a collaborating principal investigator at the Nanyang Biologics-NTU Joint Laboratory where I had a two-year research attachment as an undergraduate, my supervisor being Assoc Prof Li Hoi Yeung of the School of Biological Sciences. I am disappointed but not surprised that Prof Chiba responded in a non-empathetic way to my concerns and refusing to take this matter further, given that I had a bad history within the joint laboratory. This bad history was initiated by an ex-staff Mr Chua Yong Kang (also an alumni of the School of Biological Sciences) who discriminated against me and treated me with extreme hostility even to the point of almost raising his hand on me in the laboratory if not for other team members' stopping in time. Due to his bad behaviour, the laboratory team members, especially the management personnel including facility manager Dr Lai Soak Kuan and principal investigator Assoc Prof Li Hoi Yeung himself, seemed to unanimously align narratives about me in a way that justifies his actions. Dr Lai Soak Kuan worked very closely with Prof Chiba in the joint laboratory, and it is not known whether Dr Lai Soak Kuan has influenced Prof Chiba directly or indirectly but given contextual cues it is highly probable. Outside of the joint laboratory, there has also been much negative feedback circulating about my interactions with other students, staff, and faculty of the School of Biological Sciences which contributed to the overall bad blood resulting in hostile responses from the school's management of my situation. For instance, Ms Hua Wen Hui, alongside Assoc Prof Melissa Fullwood, has evidently dismissed my concerns when I attempted to raise another concern about a student in the context of an outreach event in 2022 and refused to work out a resolution. In many other cases, my regular point of contact at the School of Biological Sciences general office Mr Eugene Lee Hong Yee, has been providing me with vague and sometimes hostile answers in situations when I needed absolute clarity of matters including the school management's preferences in engaging with me in complex circumstances. He has also evidently rolled his eyes at me on the day of the Open House 2026. I believe that all members of the public ought to see to the way the School of Biological Sciences and the College of Science at the Nanyang Technological University has responded to my concerns about a student's unprofessional behaviour, and that my elaboration of relevant details could help the public to see how they have come to discriminate against me in favour of an esteemed student. EDIT: I discovered that the school apparently tried to cover their backside. Right after my confrontation about the student being featured on the social media platforms, the school apparently immediately deleted the post. The school has also pressured several people to turn hostile against me, including blocking me on communication platforms. One career coach from the NTU Career & Attachment Office, Mr Stephen Koh, has blocked me on Telegram and wiped out all traces of my past communications with him right after the situation. Several peers also cut off all engagement with me entirely.
#12408: The reality of the management of NTU School of Biological Sciences and College of Science
#12408rantยท 6h ago
๐ 0โค๏ธ 0๐ 0